A solicitor representing victims of phone hacking by the News of the World during Mr Coulson’s time as editor suggested Mr Osborne was “almost indebted” to Mr Coulson because of the way the newspaper had covered allegations made by a prostitute that the MP had taken cocaine with her.
Mark Lewis said the newspaper had put “a gloss” on its reporting of Natalie Rowe’s claims that the Chancellor took the class A drug in the early 1990s, before he became an MP. “Andy Coulson had done George Osborne a favour,” he said. “Perhaps it was time for George Osborne to reciprocate and do a favour back.”
The Chancellor’s aides yesterday dismissed any suggestion that Mr Osborne had felt obliged to Mr Coulson, and also denied a series of other lurid allegations made by Miss Rowe in an interview with Australia’s ABC television network.
Mr Coulson’s appointment as David Cameron’s communications director has drawn criticism throughout Mr Cameron’s tenure as Tory leader. » | Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter | Monday, September 12, 2011
