Cameron asks to address parliament on hacking scandal

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday asked for parliament to sit for an extra day so that he can address the widening phone hacking scandal.

“I am asking for parliament to sit an extra day on Wednesday so I can make a new statement adding to the details of the judicial inquiry,” he said during a press conference in Pretoria on the first stop of an African tour.

Cameron said he also wanted to “answer questions that come up from today’s announcements or indeed tomorrow’s announcements,” referring to statements and hearings planned for Monday and Tuesday.

Cameron defended his decision to visit South Africa and Nigeria despite the phone-hacking scandal convulsing the establishment after Britain’s top policeman quit over his ties to Rupert Murdoch’s empire.

Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson resigned Sunday over the force’s hiring of a former executive at the News of the World, but delivered a parting shot at the premier’s own decision to employ an ex-editor of the tabloid as his media chief.

His shock announcement came just hours before police bailed Rebekah Brooks — who resigned on Friday as head of Murdoch’s British newspaper arm — after she was arrested on suspicion of phone-hacking and bribing police.

Cameron heard about Stephenson’s resignation while flying to South Africa where he began a trade visit.