Leveson: ‘Time to call in those bottles of champagne’, journalist told

Mr Yates, who resigned over the phone-hacking scandal in July last year, also confirmed he was a “good friend” of former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis. The pair attended football games together and met at least seven times between April 2009 and August 2010, the press standards inquiry heard.

Meanwhile, fellow former Metropolitan Police anti-terror chief Peter Clarke defended his decision to restrict the scope of the force’s original 2006 investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World.

He said police were dealing with a terrorist threat to the UK at the time, including a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners which was foiled two days after officers arrested the Sunday tabloid’s royal editor, Clive Goodman.

Mr Clarke told the inquiry: “Invasions of privacy are odious, obviously. They can be extraordinarily distressing and illegal but they don’t kill you. Terrorists do.”

On 30 October, Ms Panton, the News of the World’s crime editor, was asked by news editor James Mellor to find out more from Mr Yates about a printer cartridge bomb found on a cargo aircraft at East Midlands Airport the previous day.

Mr Mellor wrote in an e-mail: “John Yates could be crucial here. Have you spoken to him? Really need an excl [exclusive] splash [front page] line so time to call in all those bottles of cham-pagne …”

Ms Panton replied: “Noted. Not got hold of him yet still trying.”

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the Leveson Inquiry, said the e-mail suggested that Ms Panton had “plied” Mr Yates with champagne and the favour was to be returned. Mr Yates, giving evidence via videolink from Bahrain, where he is overseeing reform of the police, replied: “I hadn’t been plied with champagne by Lucy Panton, and I think it’s an unfortunate emphasis you’re putting on it.”

Asked whether he drank champagne with the News of the World reporter, Mr Yates said: “There may well have been the odd occasion, yes, when a bottle was being shared with several people, but nothing in the sense that you’re suggesting.”

Ms Panton, who is married to a Scotland Yard detective, was arrested in December on suspicion of making corrupt payments to police officers. She was later bailed and has not been charged.

The inquiry heard that Mr Yates met Mr Wallis regularly – for private meals with other friends or on other occasions on official business at New Scotland Yard and on the way to and from “two or three” football matches.