Labour questions Coulson 'payments

Prime Minister David Cameron faces "serious questions" over claims his former communications chief received several hundred thousand pounds from News International while he was employed by the Conservatives, Labour has said.
A series of severance payments were made to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson for several months after he began working for the Tories, according to the BBC.
The instalments totalled the full entitlement under his two-year contract as editor of the now defunct tabloid which was published by News International, the BBC claimed.
His severance package also included continued access to healthcare as well as keeping hold of his company car, the Corporation said.
A Labour spokesman said: "David Cameron now faces allegations that one of his top advisers was also in the pay of News International. The Prime Minister needs to immediately make clear whether these allegations are true. There are serious questions to answer about Mr Coulson's employment in Downing Street and the country should not have to wait for full transparency."
Mr Coulson was hired by the Conservative party in July 2007 on a reported salary of £275,000, six months after he quit as editor of the Sunday newspaper when its royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for hacking into the voicemails of Buckingham Palace staff.
The Prime Minister took Mr Coulson into government with him, putting him on the public payroll when he made him director of communications.
Mr Coulson quit in January as pressure over phone-hacking continued to mount, saying it was distracting him from his role. Last month he was arrested on suspicion of corruption and phone hacking and was released on police bail until October.
A Conservative party spokeswoman said: "Senior party officials have no knowledge of Andy Coulson's severance arrangements."
A spokesman for News International said: "News International consistently does not comment on the financial arrangements of any individual."

 

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Sally Bercow is the hot favourite to be evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house this Friday after being nominated by contestant Kerry Katona

Sally found herself up for eviction after Kerry was forced to nominate two fellow contestants when she lost her secret task on the first day in the Celebrity Big Brother house.
The wife of House of Commons Speaker John Bercow is now the favourite to be leaving the house on Friday when the results of the public vote are announced, with odds of 4/6 that she will become this year's first evictee.
And if she does get the boot this Friday, Sally may find that she's fallen out of favour with not just the voting public, but her husband too, with bookies offering odds of 10/1 that he will be forced out of his parliamentary role in the wake of Sally's appearance on the Channel 5 show.
Ladbrokes spokesman David Williams said: 'Sally's time looks to be up in the Big Brother house and the vultures are circling around her husband.
'Like it or not, the Speaker has ended up getting caught up in the furore over his wife's involvement in the TV show. Critics are revelling in the Bercow soap-opera.'
Meanwhile, Ladbrokes are offering odds of 8/1 that Kerry will be evicted on Friday and odds of 11/8 that model Bobby Sabel will be the first to go. Jedward are currently the favourites to win, followed closely by former TOWIE star Amy Childs.

 

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Sally Bercow apparently revealing how she gave her husband a 'dirty weekend' to persuade him to let her appear in the downmarket programme

Her decision to enter the Big Brother house had already triggered fears she would embarrass both herself and her husband.

Not that Sally Bercow – the publicity-hungry wife of House of Commons speaker John – appears to have let those concerns affect her.

After apparently revealing how she gave her husband a 'dirty weekend' to persuade him to let her appear in the downmarket programme, Mrs Bercow took part in a louche debate just hours after entering the house.

Sally Bercow, wife of the House of Commons Speaker, John Bercow, says her husband didn't know she was entering the Celebrity Big Brother House until two days ago

Early yesterday, the 41-year-old became involved in a less-than-ladylike discussion about intimate beauty treatments with Amy Childs, whose claim to fame is a role in reality show The Only Way Is Essex.

Mr Bercow – who is on holiday in India while the programme is on – had been vehemently against his wife taking part in the series, saying he found it 'completely dreadful'. 

 

 

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However Mrs Bercow, who will personally receive £40,000 for her appearance, was keen to participate, with sources suggesting that 'upsetting the establishment' particularly appealed to her. 

 

Glamorous: Sally appeared confident as she dazzled the crowds in her short, blue dress with diamanté straps

Essex girl: Big Brother contestant Amy Childs

Before entering the house, she apparently told a friend how she persuaded her husband to drop his objections.

'I just used my feminine wiles and took John away for a dirty weekend in Devon,' she said.  'He eventually gave in, though he made me promise not to say or do anything that might harm him.'

Yesterday, her spokesman Max Clifford could not confirm the claim but said: 'Sally is very happy with their personal life.'

Mrs Bercow entered the house, in Elstree, Hertfordshire, on Thursday. As well as Miss Childs, she is 'starring' alongside former X Factor contestants Jedward and ex-pop star Kerry Katona.

Audience figures for the launch of the series, which has switched to Channel 5 after being dumped by Channel 4, were down on last year at an average of 5.1million.

Before she entered the house an unnamed Tory MP had said: 'With Mrs Bercow under 24-hour scrutiny, it is going to be impossible for her not to embarrass her husband and herself.'

Good luck: Sally chats with host Brian Dowling before disappearing into the Big brother house

Last night Tory MP Brian Binley said he 'felt sorry' for Mr Bercow.

'Clearly, he is married to a very strong-willed woman, who seemingly doesn't spend too much time thinking about the status of her husband's position,' he said.

And Kate Hoey, the former Labour sports minister, said the Speaker's wife should hand some of her £40,000 fee to the Exchequer 'to make up for her free accommodation provided at the expense of the taxpayer'.

But Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP for Corby, supported Mrs Bercow, saying: 'Sally Bercow is her own woman and it's about time people stopped seeing wives as adjuncts of their husbands.'

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shopkeeper burst into tears this morning as she described the agonising wait for police to come to the scene of her looted couture clothes store.

A shopkeeper burst into tears this morning as she described the agonising wait for police to come to the scene of her looted couture clothes store.

Giselle Asante, 57, who has owned her tailor-made clothing business in Peckham High Street in south east London for 20 years, said she was alerted to looters targeting her shop at 1am but police had still not arrived at the scene by 9am.


The shop had been ransacked, with custom-made clothes stolen, including wedding dresses which were due to be collected by brides later this week.

A neighbour saw rioters force their way into the store, named Giselle, despite police being just 20 metres away.

Her daughter, Jan Asante, 33, said: "Riot police had formed a line down the road and there were a few police on the other side of the people that kicked in the door and they did nothing. A tenant upstairs was terrified.

"We called the police early this morning but they told us they were too busy and said they would meet us here at 8am. However, they just called and said they don't know when they will make it down.

"The thing that really hurt is that we got no warning from the police at all."

Giselle added: "It is truly devastating. We cannot replace any of these things because we have made them all.

"Police can't even touch the people that are looting someone's property.

"We are paying £6,000 in business rates each year for highway maintenance and use of the fire service and police but they didn't even stop people who were looting in front of them."

In Ealing, one eyewitness said he waited an hour for police after calling 999.

Today a row of three burnt-out cars, one tipped on its side, remained on The Green, a leafy area of the west London suburb.

Two fire engines were parked in front of a row of baby boutiques, organic food shops and Italian restaurants.

Witnesses said one baby shop had been completely looted and rioters had set the merchandise on fire outside in the street.

The frame of a burnt pram could be seen among the debris.

Alex Bortoletto, 42, who lives above Starbucks, which was also attacked, said he was so frightened he locked himself in the bathroom.

He said: "At about 9 o'clock I just heard a lot of noise, then all of a sudden there was about 150 of them and they tipped a car over and burnt it, then started ransacking everything.

"They were trying to break into Starbucks so me and my friend locked ourselves in the bathroom. The noise was so awful, we were so afraid we were going to be burnt, we were crying and shaking.

"We saw them carrying stuff out of the baby shop like prams and babygros, then burning it. We thought we were going to choke it was so smoky.

"When we looked outside all we could see was the light of the fire and there must have been about 200 of them by then.

"We were phoning the police and fire brigade but it took ages for them to answer and then it took forever for them to arrive.

"They got here about an hour later.

"We decided if they got into the shop then tried to get up to the flat we would try to hold the door but all they managed was to smash the windows.

"It was so scary. We couldn't believe it would spread here and we couldn't see what the police were doing - it looked like they weren't doing anything.

"We wanted them to be more aggressive, to use tear gas or something, but they weren't doing anything. The crowd only left when the fire brigade arrived at about 11pm. I didn't sleep at all."

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Parliament is being recalled on Thursday in response to rioting in England,This could bring the Government down as talk of a No confidence vote is in the offing

The government's emergency committee Cobra met on Tuesday after rioting spread across London, with violence flaring in other major cities.

"We will do everything necessary to restore order to Britain's streets and make them safe for the law-abiding," the PM said outside Downing Street.

More than 16,000 officers will be on London streets on Wednesday, he said.

At least 450 people have been arrested so far, Mr Cameron said.

He told rioters: "You will feel the full force of the law" and said people should "stand together in condemnation of these crimes".

The prime minister returned early from his holiday to discuss the unrest, which first flared on Saturday after a peaceful protest in Tottenham over the fatal shooting of a man by police.

London has seen a wave of "copycat criminal activity" over the past three days, the Met Police said. More than 69 people have been charged with various offences following hundreds of arrests.


David Cameron described the scenes of violence as "sickening"
Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol are among the other cities to have seen violence.

Met Deputy Assistant Commissioner Steven Kavanagh said it was a "shocking and appalling morning for London to wake up to".

"The Met was stretched beyond belief in a way that it has never experienced before," he told BBC Breakfast.

Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin ruled out bringing in the Army to help police tackle the violence, but said: "We will be out there in ever greater numbers tonight."

In other developments:

Three people are being questioned on suspicion of attempted murder after a police officer was injured by a car in Wembley, north-west London, while trying to stop suspected looters.
Tube stations in the capital that were closed following the riots have now reopened, apart from Ealing Broadway
The Tramlink service between East Croydon and Wandle Park has been suspended as a result of the fire at Reeves Corner
Elsewhere, 100 people have been arrested in Birmingham after scores of youths rampaged through the shopping area, smashing windows and looting from shops
West Midlands Police said a police station in Holyhead Road in Handsworth, Birmingham, was set on fire
There were reports of cars being damaged in Manchester and of up to 200 youths with masks roaming through Toxteth in Liverpool
Police in Bristol said they were dealing with outbreaks of disorder involving about 150 people
Nottinghamshire Police said a police station was attacked in the St Ann's area and 200 tyres were set alight in the street
"Small pockets of disorder" were dealt with by police in the Chapeltown area of Leeds overnight

Met commander Christine Jones said the violence was "simply inexcusable"
Monday's violence started in Hackney after a man was stopped and searched by police but nothing was found.

Groups of people began attacking the police in Hackney at about 16:20 BST, throwing stones and a bin at officers.

Police cars were smashed by youths armed with wooden poles and metal bars. Looters also smashed their way into shops before being dispersed by police.

Nine police forces from other parts of the country have assisted in providing support to the capital city, as well as the City of London Police and British Transport Police.

However, eyewitnesses have reported that as trouble spread across the city, there were often few police officers around when violence flared.

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