Revealed: How Piers's Mirror got Ulrika scoop, pissing off NoW and the Mail
No phone hacking involved, says Piers as the tale is told of how he put one over on his old paper ,the News of the World
MP Louise Mensch, who clearly had never read Piers's book The Insider, and hiding behind the shield of Parliamentary privilege, alleged that the book said Piers's guys had indulged in phone hacking.
But Morgan speaking to the camera is adamant:"I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any story based on the hacking of a phone." So if the Mirror didn't hack, how did the story emerge? It is to the Guardian we must turn, reporting somewhat admiringly in 2002, "It was the Mirror that first uncovered details of the England manager's affair with the TV presenter, scooping the News of the World, which thought it had an exclusive with the story." The Guardian does not say how the NoW got its version of the story (I personally wouldn't be surprised if phone hacking played a part) but said the Guardian, "However, the Mirror got wind of it and editor Piers Morgan persuaded Jonsson's agent, Melanie Cantor, to confirm the affair by promising to treat it as a showbusiness story as part of the Mirror's 3am gossip column, rather than as a scandal." So it would appear Morgan stole it from under the noses of the NoW. "If so, it would simply implicate Morgan in publishing information gained from hacking," concedes the Gawker website. The NoW weren't the only ones with their noses out of joint. The Guardian also reported the that the Daily Mail's £700,000 deal to serialise Ulrika 's sizzling biography was tarnished by a classic "spoiler" operation in the Mirror. The scoop was courtesy of her mother, said the Mirror, "Unlike other newspapers we chose not to pay £700,000 for Ulrika's story... it was nearer £50 and a couple of bus tickets to Surrey."
 Mum told the Mirror exactly what she thought of her daughter's boyfriends,and of her affair with the England football manager.
 "If she had wanted to marry him, we would have supported her, because she was so happy. When it didn't work out we were bitterly disappointed," said Mum. Sound like a good bit of journalistic enterprise by the Mirror team. However, 
Piers is not out of the woods yet. Yesterday James Hipwell, a Piers-era Mirror journalist, fired after the City Slickers scandal, says in the Independent that hacking at the Daily Mirror was widespread and "seen as a bit of a wheeze". He said he would give evidence on hacking to the public inquiry ordered by David Cameron . "I'm sick of all the lies," he said. Piers was notably reluctant to says anything about hacking until, perhaps encouraged by his bosses at CNN, he came forward last week with his "no hacking ever" statement at the start of this story.