Ex-BSF chief Tim Byles: 'I was a phone hacking victim too'

The former head of Partnerships for Schools, Tim Byles, was a victim of phone hacking, according to a report in today’s Daily Telegraph.

He is said to have told a former Labour minister that his phone was hacked by journalists, his rubbish stolen and that he was placed under surveillance last summer.

At the time he was at the centre of negative media reports blaming him for the debacle when Michael Gove repeatedly issued incorrect lists of schools affected by his decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme.

Two Sunday papers claimed to have been passed a government dossier with details of Byles’ salary and details of wasteful spending.

The Telegraph report says Byles allegedly believed a media campaign against him at the time was orchestrated by Andy Coulson, the former head of communications at Downing Street who has been arrested under Operation Weeting.

Sir David Bell, the senior civil servant at the the department for education, has written to Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, to say that Byles “suspected his mobile phone had been tampered with for the purposes of intercepting calls”.

But neither the police nor his mobile phone provider was able to identify any malpractice.