The Metropolitan Police said tonight that it saw no need to reopen its investigation into claims of illegal phone-tapping at the News of the World because no new evidence had come to light since the case was first investigated four years ago.

In a statement delivered outside Scotland Yard, Assistant Commissioner John Yates said that only a limited number of people had had their phones tapped and there was no evidence that the telephone of John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, had ever been bugged by the newspaper.

His statement will come as a relief to David Cameron, the Tory leader, who came under immense pressure today to sack his communications chief Andy Coulson, who was editor of the bestselling Sunday tabloid at the time of the phone-tapping.

Mr Coulson resigned from the newspaper in January 2007 after his former royal editor, Clive Goodman, and a private investigator, Glen Mulcaire, were jailed for four and six months respectively for unlawfully intercepting communications.

Mr Yates had been asked by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Met Commissioner, to review the case files after a report in The Guardian this morning suggested that the phones of hundreds of public figures may have been bugged by the newspaper. Potential victims named included not just Mr Prescott, but Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister and the PR man Max Clifford.

The Guardian claimed that News International, the parent company of the News of the World and also The Times, had paid out more than £1 million to settle three separate legal actions by people whose privacy had been breached, including £700,000 to Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.

Mr Yates, who was not involved in the original case, said that the Met's investigation showed that Goodman and Muclare had the ability to intercept mobile phone voicemails.

"Their potential targets may have run into hundreds of people, but our inquiries showed that they only used the tactic against a far smaller number of individuals," he said.

"It is important to recognise that our inquiries showed that in the vast majority of cases there was insufficient evidence to show that tapping had actually been achieved.

"Where there was clear evidence that people had been the subject of tapping, they were all contacted by the police. These people were made aware of the potential compromise to their phones and offered preventative advice."

Mr Yates added: "This case has been subject of the most careful investigation by very experienced detectives. It has also been scrutinised in detail by both the CPS and leading Counsel. They have carefully examined all the evidence and prepared the indictments that they considered appropriate.

“No additional evidence has come to light since this case has concluded. I therefore consider that no further investigation is required.

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