MashGet

Gordon Brown said today the questions raised by the phone-hacking affair were "very serious".

The prime minister told a press conference at the G8 in L'Aquila, Italy: "This raises questions that are very serious, that will have to be considered. And I understand the police are considering an inquiry and so I have nothing more to say."

In the Commons, David Hanson, the police minister, claimed today that neither the government nor Scotland Yard were aware of allegations that Rupert Murdoch's News Group had hacked the answerphone messages of thousands of public figures until the Guardian published its report today.