Tony Blair denies John Prescott claim that Ian Paisley's phone was tapped
Mr Blair's office says the former deputy PM is wrong and denied security services tapped the MP's phone while he was in office.
Monday 3 April 2017 15:52, UK
Former prime minister Tony Blair has denied a claim he authorised the phone tapping of the late Ian Paisley while he was an MP.
The allegation was made by John Prescott, who was deputy prime minister at the time.
Lord Prescott said in a column that Mr Blair had told him in 2005 that the security services were listening in to Mr Paisley's calls.
Denying the claim, Mr Blair's office said: "This story is wrong. No authorisation for the phone tapping of a member of parliament was given during Mr Blair's time as prime minister.
"It may be a confused account of the discussion of the Wilson Doctrine in Cabinet - something which was public at the time - which dated back to the '60s."
The Wilson Doctrine is a long-standing convention which says MPs should not have their communications monitored.
Mr Paisley's son Ian Paisley Jr said any bugging of his father's phone was "utterly disgraceful" and promised to raise the matter in Parliament.
In his Sunday Mirror newspaper column, Lord Prescott said he heard of the tapping after the Interception of Communications Commissioner contacted Downing Street.
"I was told by Tony Blair an MP had been tapped in the past without Parliament being told," wrote Lord Prescott.
"I asked him who it was and he told me the MP was the Rev Ian Paisley."
Mr Paisley was a leading Unionist politician and a key player in the Northern Ireland peace process.
He later became Northern Ireland First Minister.
Lord Prescott said Mr Blair had asked him to discuss the Wilson Doctrine with the Speaker of the House of Commons, but the Speaker was never told an MP had been tapped or that it was Mr Paisley.
"I can only think that as the peace process was still a concern, mentioning the fact a leading loyalist politician had been tapped by Britain's security services in the past would not have helped," said Lord Prescott.
Mr Paisley Jr, now MP for Antrim North, said Lord Prescott's account had uncovered an "utterly disgraceful breach of the Wilson Doctrine sanctioned by a government that would do anything for its own end".
Lord Prescott has been asked to clarify what happened.