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News Corp executive James Murdoch could face a police investigation into claims he gave "mistaken" testimony to Britain''s parliament this week, deepening the legal crisis that has engulfed the Murdoch family''s media empire.

Police said they had received a letter on Friday from opposition lawmaker Tom Watson, who questioned whether Murdoch was involved in illegal efforts to cover up phone hacking.

Detectives investigating a phone hacking scandal centred on the Murdochs'' now defunct News of the World tabloid were considering the letter, they said.

Murdoch, chairman of News Corp''s British arm, and his father and company head Rupert appeared before parliament''s media committee on Tuesday to answer questions on what they knew about the phone-hacking at the company''s News of the World.

The company had long maintained that the practice was the work of a lone "rogue reporter". However, two former senior figures at its British newspaper arm have disputed James Murdoch''s claim that he was unaware of an e-mail that suggested as early as 2008 that wrongdoing was more widespread.

"I think this is the most significant moment of two years of investigation into phone hacking," Watson, a Labour lawmaker, told BBC TV on Friday.

"If their statement is accurate, it shows that James Murdoch had knowledge that others were involved in hacking as early as 2008, that he failed to act to discipline staff or initiate some internal investigation," added Watson, part of the media committee who has long campaigned to expose wrongdoing at the newspaper.

"If their version of events is accurate, it doesn''t just mean that parliament has been misled, it means the police have another investigation on their hands," Watson added.

Murdoch has said he stood behind his testimony to the committee and the company said on Friday that this statement still applied.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has come under fire for his close ties to senior News Corp figures, tried to distance himself from the company.

"Clearly James Murdoch has got questions to answer in parliament and I am sure that he will do that," he told reporters, "and clearly News International has got some big issues to deal with and a mess to clear up."