LONDON, June 9 (UPI) -- British lawmakers say they want to expand a probe's scope of a private investigator's information-gathering on the British royal family and government leaders.
Members of Parliament called for the investigation into allegedly illegal information-gathering of a private investigator working for the News of the World to be expanded to include an investigator who also worked for News of the World and media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News International, The Independent of London reported Thursday.
The Independent said some officials included Tony Blair while he was prime minister, senior Metropolitan Police officers, a Bank of England governor and Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William.
Scotland Yard until recently was investigating Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who was paid by the News of the World to hack into the cellphone voicemail accounts of celebrities and public figures.
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Lawmakers now want the police investigation to include Jonathan Rees, whose detective agency earned more than $245,000 a year from the News of the World and once was thought to have targeted celebrities by using illegal surveillance techniques, allegedly including burglary, computer hacking and false representation.
Tom Watson, a former defense minister and now lawmaker, told the House of Commons Wednesday he believed News International was implicated in Rees' work, claiming there was an attempt to block the police from investigating, The Independent said.
"I believe powerful forces are involved in a coverup. Please tell me what you intend to do to make sure that does not happen," Watson asked Prime Minister David Cameron.
Cameron said Scotland Yard was free to pursue the evidence wherever it led.
Scotland Yard issued a statement Wednesday saying it received "a number of allegations" about invasions of privacy since it began its original investigation against Mulcaire.
