Cherie Blair is to sue the publisher of the News of the World after it emerged she was an alleged victim of phone-hacking while her husband was prime minister.
Mrs Blair filed a writ at the High Court in London on Tuesday against News Group Newspapers and Glenn Mulcaire, the private detective jailed in 2007 for voicemail interception.
Although there have been previous suspicions she was targeted by the News of the World, Mrs Blair has not, so far, been confirmed as a victim of phone hacking.
If NGN accepts that her phone was hacked, Mrs Blair would become the second figure to have become a victim while living or working in Number 10.
Earlier this month Tony Blair’s former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, was paid damages by NGN after it admitted hacking his phone.
Confirmation that Mrs Blair’s phone was also hacked would raise serious questions about security in Downing Street during Mr Blair’s tenure.
The news comes just a day after it emerged that the singer Charlotte Church and her parents were close to settling their own phone hacking case against NGN, which would have meant there were no outstanding “live” cases against the publisher.
But Mrs Blair’s claim is the first of what could be dozens of fresh cases against the Rupert Murdoch-owned company, which has already paid out more than £10 million in damages and legal fees to more than 60 victims of phone hacking.
Lawyers representing hacking victims have said that more than 70 other victims have contacted them with the intention of suing NGN after they were told by the Metropolitan Police that their voicemails had been accessed.
It means Mrs Blair’s claim could be merely the first in a new wave of hacking claims that could cost NGN millions more in payouts.
They could include Carole Caplin, Mrs Blair’s former lifestyle adviser, who has been told by police that her phone was hacked in 2002, the year it emerged that her then-boyfriend, the convicted fraudster Peter Foster, had helped Mrs Blair buy two discounted flats in Bristol.
Alastair Campbell told the Leveson Inquiry last year that he had thought Miss Caplin was leaking information to the press, but had been forced to apologise to her after discovering her phone was hacked.
He also said he believed a story about Mrs Blair becoming pregnant in 1999 could have been obtained by phone hacking.
The story appeared in the Daily Mirror but Mr Campbell said “only a tiny number of people in Downing Street knew” about the pregnancy.
Mrs Blair’s solicitor was not available for comment.
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