The BBC is reporting that former Screws  deputy editor Neil Wallis was advising Andy Coulson just before the election. It’s interesting timing for the Tories to admit that Wallis was advising the soon to be Prime Minister’s adviser during the Panorama investigation into phone-hacking. No wonder Cameron is flying home…

UPDATE: CCHQ Statement:

“There have been some questions about whether the Conservative Party employed Neil Wallis. We have double checked our records and are able to confirm that neither Neil Wallis nor his company has ever been contracted by the Conservative Party, nor has the Conservative Party made payments to either of them.

It has been drawn to our attention that he may have provided Andy Coulson with some informal advice on a voluntary basis before the election. We are currently finding out the exact nature of any advice.

We can confirm that apart from Andy Coulson, neither David Cameron nor any senior member of the campaign team were aware of this until this week.”

Not sure that will quite be enough to put off some very awkward questions from Ed Miliband tomorrow.

Committee suspended. One person cuffed.

Breaking…

UPDATE: One man arrested for attacking Murdoch with paint/foam and gets a slap from Mrs Murdoch.

UPDATE: II:

http://twitter.com/#!/paulwaugh/status/93350295651893250

Number 10 have released the emails between Scotland Yard and Cameron’s Chief of Staff. Llewellyn’s neck might just be saved by the fact that his “reply was discussed and agreed with the Permanent Secretary at No10″ but that could easily damn them both. There is a head-in-the-sand feel to the reply and particularly damning that neither want to put much into writing:

10 September 2010: John Yates to Ed Llewellyn:

Ed,
Hope all well.
I am coming over to see the PM at 12.30 today regarding [redacted: national security] matters. I am very happy to have a conversation in the margins around the other matters that have caught my attention this week if you thought it would be useful.

Best wishes,
John

10 September 2010: Ed Llewellyn to John Yates:

John –
Thanks – all well.

On the other matters that have caught your attention this week, assuming we are thinking of the same thing, I am sure you will understand that we will want to be able to be entirely clear, for your sake and ours, that we have not been in contact with you about this subject.

So I don’t think it would really be appropriate for the PM, or anyone else at No 10, to discuss this issue with you, and would be grateful if it were not raised please.

But the PM looks forward to seeing you, with Peter Ricketts and Jonathan Evans, purely on [redacted: national security] matters at 1230.

With best wishes,
Ed

In other words “we don’t want to know…”

UPDATE: Reading these again, the killer line has to be: “I am sure you will understand that we will want to be able to be entirely clear, for your sake and ours, that we have not been in contact with you about this subject”. Why would anyone put that in writing? Think they call it a paper trail…

http://twitter.com/#!/piersmorgan/status/93324061341515776

Guido is looking forward to crystal clear tones when Morgan is hauled before Lord Justice Leveson.

In an email in September 2010, David Cameron’s Chief of Staff told Yates of the Yard that he would be “grateful” if the Prime Minister was not told about the Met’s relationship with Coulson’s former deputy, and phone hacking suspect, Neil Wallis. He is also alleged to have turned down a briefing on the phone-hacking situation from the police. Steve Hilton also claims he told Ed Llewellyn about the information passed on to him by the Guardian. Llewellyn claims that he did not pass this information on to his boss. Though it’s likely to be overshadowed by today’s other events, the pack smell blood, and it’s doesn’t look good for Dave’s £140,000 school chum and ultra-loyalist.

UPDATE: The Telegraph are keeping up the pressure.

The correct technical term for what’s currently going on in Number 10 is “a flap”. Sir Paul Stephenson claimed early in his evidence that a “senior Number 10 official” advised, or even asked, the Met not to reveal information about  former News of the World deputy editor turned spinner Neil Wallis, due to the fact it would embarrass the David Cameron and Andy Coulson. The hunt is on and Downing Street is being bombarded with calls. The hunger for a political scalp that Guido mentioned earlier has shot up. Sir Paul Stephenson suggested the committee asked Mr Yates who it was. We wait with baited breath…