Yates offers to testify again in Parliament

One of Britain's top police officers says he will appear before MPs to answer allegations that he misled Parliament over the phone hacking scandal, The Independent has learnt.

Scotland Yard's acting deputy commissioner John Yates has told the Home Affairs and Media select committees he is willing to testify to "rebut" claims he gave misleading evidence on the law on hacking and the number of victims involved.

The Metropolitan police said Mr Yates had written to the committees "offering to appear before them, if they so wish or think it appropriate, to provide the evidence necessary to rebut the allegations that [Chris Bryant MP] has made."

On Saturday, Mr Yates quoted legal advice on hacking from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, who said his comments had been used "out of context". A spokesman said she could not say whether Mr Starmer would also be willing to appear before the committees, but pointed out that a DPP had never refused to do so in the past.