David Cameron’s director of communications is expected to be questioned by MPs over new evidence that more senior figures at the News of the World were involved in phone hacking while he was the Editor of the newspaper.

Andy Coulson, who was Editor from 2003 to 2007, will be asked to justify his claim that he was unaware that staff were using a private investigator to intercept voicemail messages of members of the Royal Household, celebrities and sportsmen.

Members of the Tory party said that he would be happy to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, perhaps as early as next Tuesday. They emphasised that there was no new evidence to link Mr Coulson to the phone tapping, although he accepted responsibility by resigning when Clive Goodman, the paper’s royal reporter, was jailed in January 2007.

Yesterday MPs were presented with e-mails which suggest that Neville Thurlbeck, the paper’s chief reporter, was also involved in phone hacking. The papers suggested that he was sent transcripts of voicemail messages hacked by Glen Mulcaire, the private investigator who was jailed with Mr Goodman.

The e-mails, which were shown to the committee but have not been made public, were sent between Mr Mulcaire and an unnamed junior reporter in December 2005. In one, the reporter says: “Hello, this is the transcript for Neville.”

They contain transcripts of 35 messages between Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, and Jo Armstrong, a legal adviser.

The committee was also presented with a contract from Greg Miskiw, then the paper’s assistant news editor, in August 2005, promising Mr Mulcaire £7,000 if he delivered an unspecified story about Mr Taylor. Mr Taylor later sued the News of the World but settled out of court.

The journalist Nick Davies said that the “Neville” was a clear reference to Mr Thurlbeck, although he accepted that none of the material was ever used in a story so far as he was aware.

There are no references to Mr Coulson in any of the documents presented to the committee. However, he is likely to come under new pressure because the documents suggest that the practice of voicemail hacking was more widespread than had previously been acknowledged.

Mr Cameron told a newspaper in 2007: “I am satisfied that Andy Coulson was not aware that a journalist at the News of the World was engaged in this practice.” But committee members expressed disbelief that he would not have known.

Mr Coulson is now likely to be asked to appear before the committee, along with Stuart Kuttner, who resigned as managing editor of the News of the World last week. Committee sources have indicated that Colin Myler, Mr Coulson’s successor as Editor of the News of the World, and its chief lawyer, Tom Crone, would not be sufficient representatives to appear on behalf of the newspaper.

Tim Toulmin, director of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), said that the PCC was looking at whether it had been “misled” by the News of the World during a previous inquiry into the affair. “The question for us now is that, in their submission to us two years ago, were we misled into believing that it was more of a contained problem than it was,” he added.

He emphasised, however, that much of the material published by The Guardian last week had already been in the public domain.

Scotland Yard appeared to rule out investigating the phone tapping allegations further last week. However, a letter from Assistant Commissioner John Yates to the Home Office, sent on Friday but made public only yesterday, seemingly leaves the door open for a new inquiry.

In the document, Mr Yates clarified that his review related specifically to the case of Mr Goodman and Mr Mulcaire. “In relation to any wider issues, I have not been asked to consider any other cases,” he wrote. “I wish to also make it clear that the Metropolitan Police Service has not received any specific allegations in relation to the activities of any other journalists.”

Mr Yates emphasised that the latest material from The Guardian would not justify reopening “the original investigation”.

The News of the World has not commented since the committee meeting. A statement from Les Hinton, the former chief executive of News International, was read out at the start of the meeting. He said: “I do not wish to alter or add to my comments to your committee. My answers then were sincere and, I hope, comprehensive.”

A spokeswoman for News International, which is also the parent company of The Times, said that the company was very happy to put forward its case in front of the select committee next Tuesday.

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