By SIMON WALTERS and STEPHEN MOYES
The BBC has had talks with a self-confessed prostitute and drug user who was pictured posing with George Osborne in front of an alleged line of cocaine.
A member of the flagship Panorama investigative team met Natalie Rowe, 47, with a view to making a film about her links with the Chancellor and former Downing Street spin doctor Andy Coulson.
The meeting was part of a new BBC probe into claims about phone hacking on the News of the World when Mr Coulson was editor.
Ms Rowe, who is said to have specialised in sado-masochism, has had similar discussions with Australian TV station ABC and American magazine Vanity Fair.
The BBC was investigating Mr Osborne’s support for Mr Coulson’s successful bid to become David Cameron’s head of communications after he was forced to quit as News of the World editor over the phone-hacking scandal. Mr Coulson’s paper published a strong denial by Mr Osborne of allegations that he had taken drugs with Ms Rowe.
Subsequently, Mr Osborne was instrumental in persuading Mr Cameron to recruit Mr Coulson as his spin doctor.
Ms Rowe is suing the News of the World after being told by police that her phone was hacked by the paper when claims were made of drug-taking by senior Conservatives. Mr Osborne has been told by police that his phone was also targeted by the News of the World as part of its investigation into his links with Ms Rowe.
Well-placed sources say Ms Rowe, who is represented by media lawyer Mark Lewis, is threatening to make explosive revelations about her former clients in the upper echelons of the Conservative Party.
Mr Osborne was severely embarrassed in 2005 by the publication of a picture of him as a 22 year-old Oxford student, smoking a cigarette with his arm draped around Ms Rowe. According to some claims, cocaine and rolled-up papers, allegedly for snorting the drug, could be seen in the picture taken at a party.
Mr Osborne confirmed he knew Ms Rowe, who ran an agency called Black Beauties supplying prostitutes to clients paying from £350 an hour.
He said he came into contact with her through a friend who had a relationship with her and went on to become a drug addict.
But he strenuously denied that he took cocaine with her, saying the allegations were ‘defamatory and completely untrue’.
A BBC spokesman said: ‘Panorama is continuing to look into the phone-hacking story and we have been pursuing a number of lines of inquiry, of which this was one element. However, there are no immediate plans for a programme.’
A spokesman for Ms Rowe said: ‘She declines to comment.’
www.dailymail.co.uk, 4 September 2011