British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he takes full responsibility for employing ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson as No 10 press chief as he apologised "fully and frankly for the decision".
Following Coulson's conviction at the Old Bailey for phone hacking, Cameron told MPs in the House of Commons that he had been wrong to take him on.
"I take full responsibility for employing Andy Coulson. I did so on the basis of assurances that I received," he said.
"But I always said that if those assurances turned out to be wrong I would apologise fully and frankly to this House of Commons and I do so today from this despatch box. This was the wrong decision."
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Coulson's appointment had brought disgrace on No 10.
"Today we know that, for four years, the Prime Minister's hand-picked and closest adviser was a criminal and brought disgrace to Downing Street," he said.
"We now also know that the Prime Minister also ignored multiple warnings about him."
Mr Miliband told MPs: "The truth about this is that the charge against the Prime Minister is not one of ignorance, it is wilful negligence.
"At the heart of this scandal are thousands of innocent victims of phone hacking he didn't stand up for.
"The Prime Minister will always be remembered as being the first ever occupant of his office who brought a criminal into the heart of Downing Street."
Cameron said that Miliband was trying to "re-run" the Leveson Inquiry, which had cleared him of any wrongdoing.
"He can't bear the fact that an eight-month inquiry that he hoped was going to pin the blame on me found that I had behaved correctly throughout. That is the case," Cameron said.
"All of these issues were examined by the Leveson Inquiry."
Miliband listed a catalogue of warnings issued to the Prime Minister, telling him: "When it came to Andy Coulson, you just didn't want to know the evidence.
"This is about your character, your judgment and the warnings you ignored."
They included one delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and a July 2009 article in The Guardian, published when Coulson worked for Cameron as leader of the opposition, showing "evidence of phone hacking on an industrial scale" under his editorship.
But Cameron said he had been cleared of any misconduct by the Leveson Inquiry into media standards.
"Every single one of these issues was dealt with exhaustively by the Leveson Inquiry.
"He looked into all of these questions about the warnings I was given and the response I gave and he made no criticism of my conduct.
"I know you were disappointed by the Leveson Inquiry but you called for it, it took place and you should heed what it said," he told Miliband.
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