Hugh Grant urges police to investigate Sun owners

Hugh Grant has called for police to open a new criminal investigation into the owners of The Sun, saying the job is not done "by any means" after Prince Harry settled his privacy claim on Wednesday.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) agreed to pay "substantial damages" and apologised to the Duke of Sussex for "serious intrusion" by The Sun between 1996 and 2011, and admitted "incidents of unlawful activity" were carried out by private investigators working for the newspaper.

Grant also settled a privacy claim against NGN in 2024, saying he could have faced a bill of up to £10m even if he had won.

The actor said both incidents had shown a civil case was "not the right instrument" to get to "the real truth" of what happened at the newspaper.

Former Labour leader Lord Tom Watson, who also reached a settlement with NGN on Wednesday, said a legal team would be passing a dossier to the Metropolitan Police.

The force said on Friday there were no active investigations into allegations of phone hacking or related matters.

"We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course," a spokesperson said.

Grant said NGN had "gamed" the civil courts to silence complainants and a criminal investigation was needed.

"That's what they've done consistently over the last 10 years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday.

"They've spent £1bn to make sure these things are never looked at in court… and you don't get proper judicial findings.

"I think what they're terrified of is that those findings would trigger a new criminal inquiry."

In the civil courts, claimants could end up paying the costs of their opponents if the damages award is less than they have been offered to settle - even if they win.

Grant had accused The Sun of using private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, and said he settled because he could not face the possible costs of proceeding to trial.

NGN had denied the allegations and said the settlement was reached "without admission of liability".

The actor called on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Metropolitan Police to investigate.

The CPS told the BBC criminal investigations were matters for the police.

Grant also argued a new investigation was needed because people who were at the paper at the time that private investigators who carried out "unlawful activity" were instructed were still in "positions of great power".

NGN apologised to Prince Harry for serious intrusion into his private life by The Sun that took place between 1996 and 2011.

The paper's editor during part of that time, Rebekah Brooks, is currently the CEO of News UK. She was cleared of conspiracy to hack voicemails in a 2014 trial.

"A lot of the foot soldiers for those newspapers have now come over to our side… to say this is awful," the actor said.

"We've been punished, we've been to prison, we've paid fines, we've lost our jobs.

"But the people who commanded all this, they're still there."

Meanwhile, Grant said the government should launch part two of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in light of the Duke of Sussex's case.

The 2012 inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press was launched in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

"This is something that was repeatedly promised by Labour in opposition to victims of press abuse, over and over.

"And now suddenly seem to have disappeared from their priority list now that they're in government."

On Thursday, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, ruled out opening a second stage of the inquiry, saying it was no longer "fit for purpose".

"A lengthy inquiry that was formulated in a different era before a lot of the cases that we've seen since arise from what happens online, which is where a lot of people consume news nowadays," Lisa Nandy told the BBC.

The BBC has contacted The Sun, News UK and the government for a response.