News of the World paid women to sleep with celebrities,

Tabloid had women on payroll to get stories about people’s sexual performance, singer tells Hay festival

James Blunt claims the News of the World paid women to sleep with celebrities in order to get stories about their sexual performance.

The singer, who settled his legal action against News International in 2012, said the police had sent him emails from the News of the World, which showed that two “beautiful” women were on the payroll of the now closed tabloid “to go out and shag celebrities”.