The Tory Statement on Neil Wallis//Andy Coulson in full

Conservative Party statement on Neil Wallis informally advising Andy Coulson before the election:

There have been some questions about whether the Conservative Party employed Neil Wallis. We have double checked our records and are able to confirm that neither Neil Wallis nor his company has ever been contracted by the Conservative Party, nor has the Conservative Party made payments to either of them.

It has been drawn to our attention that he may have provided Andy Coulson with some informal advice on a voluntary basis before the election. We are currently finding out the exact nature of any advice.
We can confirm that apart from Andy Coulson, neither David Cameron nor any senior member of the campaign team were aware of this until this week.

(ht @telegraph)

Twitter seems to think this has HUGE implications for the PM. I'm not so sure. We already know that the person he hired to lead his communications (Coulson) has been arrested. The fact that Coulson got advice from a former colleague who has now been arrested in the same investigation doesn't seem to make what was a TERRIBLE situation already any worse.

But still, maybe we'll have Prime Minister Clegg in Downing Street by the weekend.