A senior British lawmaker yesterday called on CNN chat show host Piers Morgan to return home to answer questions about phone hacking, after new allegations involving a newspaper he used to edit.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the parliamentary media committee which quizzed Rupert Murdoch last month over hacking, said Mr Morgan had some “very serious questions to answer”.

He was speaking after Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Paul McCartney, claimed on a BBC TV programme that a senior journalist at the Mirror Group of newspapers admitted in 2001 to hacking her voicemail.

The BBC declined to name the journalist but said it was not Mr Morgan, who was editor of the group’s flagship Daily Mirror newspaper at the time.

However, Mr Morgan had reportedly admitted in a 2006 newspaper column to have been played a voicemail message left by Sir McCartney for Ms Mills.

“I would like to see Mr Morgan come back to this country and answer what are some very serious questions,” Mr Whittingdale told BBC News 24, although he said his committee did not have the power to compel Mr _Morgan to return to Britain.

Mr Whittingdale added: “I hope he will return to the UK and I imagine that there will be some questions which will be put to him, possibly by the police on the basis of the evidence that has emerged.”