Prime Minister: 'He [Coulson] became a friend and is a friend.'
Second former senior journalist at the paper to be arrested, Guardian reports
James Murdoch has lots of questions that need to be answered over out-of-court payments to hacking victims, says David Cameron
Referring to reports Rebekah Brooks had offered her resignation, PM said: 'In this situation I would have taken it'
Media commentator Jon Gaunt tells BBC Question Time: 'The wrong red-top has gone. Rebekah should go'.
NI executive accused of deleting millions of emails from Indian archive to obstruct police investigation
Prime Minister David Cameron today promised action to 'get to the bottom' of the phone hacking scandal but said it was not just about the press but about the police and 'about how politics works too'.
Accepting some of the blame, Mr Cameron said party leaders 'were so keen to win the support of newspapers we turned a blind eye to the need to sort this issue.'
Shortly after he spoke former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson was arrested on suspicion of corruption and phone hacking.
Mr Cameron spoke out as as shockwaves from the scandal, which forced the closure of the 168-year-old News of the World last night, continued to reverberate.
In a new development today, police are said to be investigating allegations that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an electronic archive in a bid to obstruct the phone hacking inquiry.
According to The Guardian, the archive dated back to 2005 and included correspondence between editors, reporters and private investigators, which could have been of significance to the police and hacking victims suing the News International.
The executive is alleged to have deleted 'massive quantities' of the archive in Mumbai, India, in January this year, shortly after the beginning of Operation Weeting, the second police investigation into hacking.
If true, it would contradict News International's position that it has co-operated fully with Operation Weeting.
The news follows a statement in the Commons during an emergency debate earlier this week when MP Tom Watson he said Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch needs to be questioned over the destruction of data at a storage facility in India.
If embattled News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was looking for support today from Mr Cameron it was not forthcoming.
Instead he intensified pressure on Mrs Brooks who was editor of the News of the World editor at the time of Milly Dowler's phone being hacked. Referring to reports that she had offered her resignation, he said: 'In this situation I would have taken it.'
Critics in Mr Cameron’s own party believe he became far too close to Mrs Brooks, a fellow member of the so-called ‘Chipping Norton set’ in Oxfordshire and Ed Miliband has sought to exploit the huge embarrassment to Mr Cameron over the scandal
Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha have regularly dined with Mrs Brooks and her husband Charlie, including at Christmas last year. The closeness between the two is even said to extend to going on horse-riding jaunts across the countryside.
The Camerons are also friends of PR king Matthew Freud and his wife Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of News International owner Rupert.
He said a judge would be appointed to run an independent inquiry into how the scandal was allowed to happen, adding: 'No stone will be left unturned.'
Mr Cameron was asked whether James Murdoch remained a fit and proper person to run a large company, following his admission yesterday that he personally approved out-of-court payments in a way which he now accepted was wrong.
The Prime Minister replied: 'I read the statement yesterday. I think it raises lots of questions that need to be answered and these processes that are under way are going to have to answer those questions.'
Mr Cameron also said 'there may be room' for him to be more transparent about his meetings with journalists and press proprietors.
During his speech, he said a second inquiry would be held to examine the ethics and culture of the press and said that the Press Complaints Commission had failed, adding: 'I believe we need a new system entirely.'
