http://www.scotsman.com/news/Blair-aides-fear-phones-were.6802360.jpPOLICE are being asked to examine whether Downing Street staff were targeted by News of the World phone hackers, as Rupert Murdoch prepares this week for a potentially explosive showdown with MPs.
Scotland on Sunday has learned that former aides to ex-prime minister Tony Blair are among those who have contacted the Metropolitan police, in the belief that their phones were hacked into and their personal details bought and sold.
The revelation comes as MPs on the Westminster culture, media and sport committee prepare to ask Rupert Murdoch and his son James which of their executives had lied to parliament when the company previously claimed the scandal was the work of one "rogue reporter".
The Metropolitan police disclosed last week that more than 4,000 people may have had their phones hacked, in a scandal which this weekend has left the Murdoch empire teetering on the brink. Yesterday, it emerged that journalists from rival newspapers may be among those affected after their names appeared in the seized notebooks of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.