Coulson 'paid by Murdoch while working for PM

The Electoral Commission is to be urged to hold an investigation into whether Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire was covertly funding the Conservative Party while David Cameron was leader of the opposition.

The call from the Labour MP Tom Watson, who has played the lead role in uncovering the telephone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's former newspaper the News of the World, follows a BBC revelation about large payments to David Cameron's former spin doctor, Andy Coulson.

Mr Coulson resigned from the editorship of the News of the World early in 2007, after the newspaper's royal correspondent Clive Goodman and the private detective Glen Mulcaire were jailed for phone hacking.