London, England (CNN) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron skipped prime minister's questions on Wednesday, depriving lawmakers of their first chance to grill him in public since the revival of a scandal involving his top public relations aide.
Cameron's father suffered a stroke and heart complications on vacation in France, and the prime minister is flying out to be with him, his office announced.
His deputy, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrat party, instead faced intense questioning about Cameron's communications chief, Andy Coulson, who used to be the editor of a tabloid newspaper accused of widespread hacking of celebrities' voice mails.
Coulson "made it very, very clear he had no knowledge" of hacking by his staff, "and that statement speaks for itself," Clegg insisted.
Senior opposition Labour lawmaker Jack Straw tried to drive a wedge between Clegg and Cameron -- a Conservative -- by demanding that Clegg express a position on Coulson.
Clegg wouldn't take the bait.
"It is now for the police and the police alone to decide whether new evidence has come to light," he said.
Police expect to question Coulson as part of their investigation into the hacking scandal, a top British police official said Tuesday.
CNN
