SCOTLAND Yard was battling to stop the phone hacking scandal spiralling out of control last night amid a storm of fresh revelations.

Acting Commissioner Tim Godwin pledged to leave “no stone unturned” as detectives restarted a “swift and robust” probe into the actions of News of the World staff.

He vigorously defended keeping the case closed for four years, saying it was reopened in the light of “highly significant” new information passed to police by the paper.

Detectives must consider where the dossier of information will lead them under the full glare of the media as alleged victims of the controversy continue to emerge.

The move came as a steady flow of potentially incendiary developments piled further pressure on the paper and police, including:

Labour frontbencher and former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell said she had contacted police after her mobile phone company alerted her to an apparent attempt to access her voicemail last week;

Actress Leslie Ash and her ex-footballer partner, Lee Chapman, are preparing legal action over fears their mobile phone messages were intercepted while she battled a life-threatening infection;

Court documents reportedly showed designer Kelly Hoppen, former stepmother of actress Sienna Miller, suspects her phone was targeted last spring;

Government whip Lord Wallace of Saltaire said the press faces a “crisis of trust” matching that of politicians in the wake of the Parliamentary expenses scandal.

The new police inquiry is the most significant development in the controversy since the News of the World’s Royal editor was imprisoned almost exactly four years ago, in 2007.

Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed after they admitted intercepting messages by using industry codes to access voicemails.