Former News of the World editor and PM’s former communications chief, Andy Coulson, has been detained by Strathclyde Police on suspicion of committing perjury at the trial of former MSP Tommy Sheridan in 2010.

The 44-year-old was arrested by seven officers from Strathclyde Police at his home in the Dulwich area of London at 6.30 am and is being taken to Glasgow for questioning. “Officers from Strathclyde Police’s Operation Rubicon team detained a 44-year-old man in London this morning under section 14 of the Criminal Procedure Scotland Act 1995 on suspicion of committing perjury before the High Court in Glasgow”, a police spokeswoman said.

David Cameron’s ex-media chief will be quizzed by officers in the Operation Rubicon team, which was set up after the trial to look into allegations of phone hacking, breaches of data protection and perjury. The trial has already led to Tommy Sheridan being jailed for three years for lying under oath during an earlier defamation case against the News of the World in 2006.

Sheridan was awarded £200,000 in damages when he won the case at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, but ended up in the dock accused of lying under oath. Coulson was called to give evidence in Sheridan’s trial as he was editor of the News of the World between 2003 and 2007.

Coulson told the trial in December 2010 that he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was editor of the News of the World. He also claimed: “I don’t accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World.”

In July 2011, Metropolitan Police investigating the News of the World hacking scandal arrested Coulson, but he was later released on bail. David Cameron’s Spin Doctor has recently given evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking.

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