Cameron orders Met chief to say why he hired NoW's Wolfman

Sir Paul Stephenson was today under growing pressure to explain his decision to hire Neil Wallis as an adviser, as it emerged the former News of the World executive's PR firm broke the law.

The Scotland Yard chief is facing "urgent questions" from Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor Boris Johnson after paying Mr Wallis £1,000 a day - a total of £24,000.

Evening Standard has learned that Mr Wallis's company, Chamy Media, was struck off the companies register two months ago for failing to file any documents since it was set up in 2009.

Police probing the phone-hacking scandal arrested Mr Wallis, 60, yesterday. Hours later, Sir Paul admitted he had employed the former News of the World deputy editor through Chamy Media as a personal media adviser.

Met public affairs boss Dick Fedorcio appointed him. Downing Street sources said Mr Cameron believes Sir Paul has "urgent questions to answer" and is angry the Met chief failed to inform him about Mr Wallis's employment when they met for crisis talks at No 10 earlier this week.

"Why did it come to light only on the day of the arrest?" demanded one Government official.
In a letter to Lord Justice Leveson, the judge heading the public inquiry into phone-hacking, the Mayor warned that "serious questions have been raised about the relations between the press and the police".

He had been "made aware" of the contract with Chamy, and asked Lord Justice Leveson to consider "whether there is any culture, in this country, of financial collusion between the press and police".

Mr Wallis, nicknamed the Wolfman in Fleet Street, registered Chamy Media in September 2009 and ran the business from his £850,000 house with his wife Gaye, 56, as co-director.

One month after its incorporation, Chamy Media won a contract to supply personal communications advice to Sir Paul. The deal ended in September last year. However, Companies House struck off the firm in May "for failing to maintain its records, file accounts and reveal its directors and shareholders, which is in breach of the 2006 Companies Act".

Former mayor Ken Livingstone said Sir Paul was guilty of "an appalling lack of judgment. I find it breathtaking that the Met could employ someone who held such a senior position when the News of the World was allegedly involved in criminal activity."

Former Scotland Yard DCI Peter Kirkham said: "The Met should have undertaken a thorough vetting process when engaging with somebody of that background in such a sensitive area. We don't yet know whether that happened."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, which will question Sir Paul next week, said the revelation about Mr Wallis's employment had stunned MPs. "There seem to have been a lot of connections between the Metropolitan Police and an organisation they were investigating."

Downing Street is reserving final judgment on whether Sir Paul might be suspended until after he provides explanations to the home affairs select committee, which has called him to answer questions urgently on Tuesday at noon, and also to Home Office officials who are compiling a report for Home Secretary Theresa May.

Mr Wallis, who was questioned for several hours after his arrest and bailed, did not respond to attempts to contact him today.

Press and police links forged over dinners and drinks
by Tom Harper

The close links between Scotland Yard and News International executives were today coming under intense scrutiny - from private dinners to drinks after work.

Former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, arrested yesterday on suspicion of phone hacking, has been lunching Met detectives since he was the self-styled "World's Greatest Reporter" on the Daily Star.

The 60-year-old continued to maintain friendships within the force as he rose to executive-level positions at the Sunday Mirror and The People.
On the News of the World, Wallis ghost-wrote a column for Met Commissioner John Stevens headlined "The Chief".

He was also a key player in landing the serialisation rights to the former Met chief's autobiography.

As the phone-hacking scandal gathered pace, Scotland Yard was forced to publish a list of meals shared between senior officers and the disgraced Sunday tabloid.

Current Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson had eight meals with News of the World executives at the time his officers were responsible for investigating the newspaper.

Five of Sir Paul's dinners between September 2006 and June 2010 were with Wallis.

The first meal shared by Mr Stephenson and Wallis came one month after Met officers arrested News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman, who was later jailed for listening in to Prince William's voicemail messages.

In November 2009, assistant commissioner John Yates dined with News of the World editor Colin Myler four months after he took the decision not to re-open the phone-hacking investigation.

Mr Yates is a close friend of Wallis and the pair also enjoyed several lavish meals on the News of the World expense account.

One former News of the World source who saw the receipts told the Standard: "Champagne was de rigueur."