A former aide to British Prime Minister David Cameron reportedly received payments from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp while serving as the Conservative Party's director of communications in 2007.

The BBC reported that Andy Coulson got several hundred thousand dollars from News Corp between July and December 2007 as part of a severance package. The deal also included health benefits for three years and allowed him to keep his company car. Coulson had resigned as editor of News Corp's News of the World newspaper after its royal editor was convicted of phone hacking.

A spokesman for the Conservative Party said senior party officials did not know of Coulson's arrangement with the media company. Coulson became director of communications for Prime Minister Cameron's government when the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats formed a coalition in May 2010. Mr. Cameron's office declined comment Tuesday on the allegations.

Andy Coulson was arrested in July as part of the investigation into a wider phone hacking scandal.