Former-Prime Minister Gordon Brown has referred his complaint that News International journalists illegally obtained information including his family medical and property records to the police, it was reported on Saturday.
Sky News reported that the battle between Brown and the Sunday Times had taken a "bitter turn" with the referral to authorities, with neither side willing to back down.
Brown made his claims about the Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers in an interview to the BBC last week, and repeated them in a speech to the Commons during which he attacked what he said was a "criminal-media nexus" at the core of News International.
The claims were dismissed by News International, who in a statement last week said that the information about Brown had been gained through legal means. They said that a story regarding Brown's son being diagnosed with cystic fibrosis was given to them via the father of another child with cystic fibrosis, and that information on his property was gained through 'subterfuge' that adhered to the PCC editors' code.
In the Commons Brown's voice had trembled when he recalled the stories published during premiership: "News International descended from the gutter to the sewers," he said. "The trouble is that they let the rats out of the sewers. This was the systematic use of base and unlawful methods, new crimes with new names. It was not the misconduct of a few rogues or a few freelancers, but lawbreaking on an often industrial scale."
Following Brown's claim's The Sunday Times issued a strong rebuttal. They said: "Mr Brown made serious false allegations last week that the Sunday Times paid 'known criminals' to work against 'completely defenceless people'. To date he has provided no evidence whatsoever for this slur."
The Guardian newspaper, which originally printed the allegations about Brown's family was also forced to apologise in its pages for claiming that the paper illegally accessed Brown's medical records.