Actor’s call comes after Duke of Sussex won substantial damages from The Sun over phone hacking claims. Hugh Grant has backed Prince Harry’s call for a fresh police investigation into Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. The actor called on Keir Starmer to show ‘leadership’ and stop ‘criminal abuse by big corporations’ after the Prince won a multi-million pound settlement this week over phone hacking claims against The Sun newspaper.
![[The Duke of Sussex has settled his claim against News Group Newspapers, which offered a full and unequivocal apology (Jordan Pettitt/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/22/11/58a719eb88fee4986fdc11f1bc44290bY29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzM3NjMxMzk4-2.73666758.jpg)
Mr Grant accepted a large settlement from Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) last year after dropping his own claim of being illegally targeted by The Sun. Prince Harry’s settlement came after NGN admitted for the first time that The Sun had been involved in illegal intrusion.
In the past it had said it was restricted to the News of the World which closed in 2011 as a result of the phone hacking scandal. Mr Grant said he and Prince Harry were determined to ‘get at the real truth’ but had been prevented from doing so because NGN had ‘gamed the system’ by paying more than £1 billion in settlements to hacking victims to avoid court proceedings.
Mr Grant told the BBC that in the light of Prince Harry’s settlement ‘the CPS and police should launch a new criminal investigation into this. “That was the aim of the Prince Harry case as I understand it and it was certainly my original aim,” he said. “We need leadership from the Prime Minister. If a government is there for anything, particularly a Labour government, it is to protect the public from the abuses of criminality by big corporations.”.
