Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre reportedly warned David Cameron against employing former News of the World editor Andy Coulson.
The claim is made in Lord Ashcroft's biography of the Prime Minister, Call Me Dave, but was not included in the Mail's serialisation of the book.
According to The Guardian, Dacre (pictured, Reuters) told Cameron that employing Coulson as his director of communications was "storing up trouble".
Coulson resigned from his position at No 10 in 2011 and was convicted in the summer of 2014 of phone-hacking offences.
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According to The Guardian, Ashcroft's book, co-written by political journalist Isabel Oakeshott, said: "Cameron had come to rely on his clever director of communications. Convinced Coulson had known nothing of phone-hacking (and presumably unaware that Coulson and [Rebekah] Brooks had been lovers), the prime minister ignored at least three high-level warnings about bringing him into government…
"Among those who privately counselled against the move were Daily Mail boss Paul Dacre, who said it was ‘storing up trouble’, former Evening Standard editor Max Hastings, and his old family friend Nicholas Soames."
Cameron told Parliament in 2011 that he had not received warnings about the appointment of Coulson from Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger.
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Rusbridger said he warned the Cameron's office about links between Coulson and private investigator Jonathan Rees, but the Prime Minister said: "This information was not passed on to me."
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