Labour to target Tories over Coulson

David Cameron will face fresh questions over the fate of his communications director Andy Coulson this week, after the Labour Party made it clear it expects the Prime Minister to address the issue directly.

Downing Street confirmed over the weekend that Mr Coulson had been interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives about allegations of phone-hacking during his tenure at the News of the World. No 10 said Mr Coulson had attended a meeting with Metropolitan Police officers voluntarily on Thursday and was interviewed as a witness. He was not cautioned or arrested.

Harriet Harman, Labour's Deputy Leader, said it was time Mr Cameron "took this matter seriously". "The continued presence of Andy Coulson as director of communications at No 10 when question marks hang over him casts doubt over David Cameron's judgment," she said.

Her intervention came as Paul McMullan, a former features editor at the News of the World, claimed to know of at least 13 former colleagues who admit to being involved in phone-tapping while Mr Coulson was their editor.

Mr Coulson resigned from the newspaper in 2007 after Clive Goodman, a former News of the World journalist, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, were convicted of hacking into the voicemails of celebrities. Mr Coulson has always denied the practice was widespread and that he was aware of it.