Downing St wants place at Leveson The government has applied to be legally represented at the Leveson inquiry it set up to look into press standards and behaviour in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, it emerged on Friday. The application, if granted, would mean that Downing Street would be able to see evidence in advance and make applications for it to be restricted or even disbarred from consideration by the inquiry. On Thursday, the inquiry posted a list of witnesses for next week's opening of its third "module," looking into politicians and the press. It has already studied press and the public and press and the police, which included the names of Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson. There were press reports that Ms Brooks had been in such close contact with David Cameron, both in opposition and as prime minister, that at one stage he sent her 12 mobile phone text messages in one day. Core participant status would in theory give the government the opportunity to prevent those text messages, or other potentially embarrassing evidence, being made public by the inquiry. Sir Brian Leveson, the high court judge in charge, may not give a ruling on the application on Friday, according to people close to the inquiry. The inquiry into press standards was set up in July 2011 after it was revealed that News of the World staff hacked the mobile phone of Milly Dowler, the murdered Surrey schoolgirl. The resulting furore led Mrs Brooks, a former editor of the Sunday tabloid and its daily sister title The Sun, to resign as chief executive of News International, parent company of Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper businesses. Mr Coulson resigned in 2007 as editor of the News of the World, saying although he did not know about a so-called "rogue reporter" who had been found guilty of phone hacking at his paper, he would take responsibility. He joined the Conservative party as David Cameron's communications chief and followed him to No 10 Downing Street, only to resign in January 2011 as NI's claim that only one reporter was responsible for the illegal activity began to fall apart. Mr Coulson and Mrs Brooks have been arrested by detectives investigating criminal activities at NI's east London headquarters. Their questioning is likely to be limited to their knowledge of and links with the UK's political elite. Also appearing next week will be Viscount Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail & General Trust and police officers who investigated an earlier scandal in Cornwall involving illegal information gathering.