Former DPP Starmer tried to send head of News UK Rebekah Brooks to prison for phone hacking 10 years ago
Ten years ago Keir Starmer attempted to send Rebekah Brooks to prison for phone hacking.
Now Starmer could cause another headache for the boss of Rupert Murdoch’s British media empire. She has to work out how her Tory-backing newspapers – which include the Sun and the Times – handle the growing popularity of the man who is favourite to become the next prime minister.
Continue reading...Outgoing PM won Tory leadership after weeks of supportive stories in the Daily Mail and other outlets
Liz Truss’s hopes of becoming prime minister looked thin in early July. The then-foreign secretary was running a distant third in the Conservative leadership election, with Rishi Sunak and a surging Penny Mordaunt on track to make the final ballot that would be sent to Tory party members.
Supporters of Boris Johnson were not happy. They believed this outcome would pave the way for the coronation of Sunak, the same man who had dethroned Johnson by resigning as chancellor. Interested parties included Paul Dacre, the former Daily Mail editor who had been promised a peerage by Johnson, which he is still hoping to secure.
Continue reading...Tributes paid to one of the most celebrated newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generation
Eamonn McCabe, one of the most celebrated and admired newspaper photographers and picture editors of his generation, has died aged 74.
McCabe was a multi-award-winning sports photographer at the Observer from 1976 and later became a trailblazing picture editor of the Guardian at a key moment in its history. His third act was as a portrait photographer, with 29 examples of his work in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
Continue reading...Guardian, BBC and Times seek release of documents about policy of sending asylum seekers abroad
A Foreign Office official raised concerns about plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, citing state surveillance, arbitrary detention, torture and killings by the country’s government, the high court has heard.
The court has been asked to consider an application by the foreign secretary to keep parts of certain government documents secret for fear the contents could damage international relations and threaten national security.
Continue reading...‘Ferocious’ temperatures loom while the Conservative leadership debate is wrung out on the UK front pages of Monday 18 July 2022
“Red alert: ‘ferocious’ heatwave set to send temperatures beyond 40C” – the Guardian leads with the weather and a picture of firefighters on duty in France. The Conservative party’s TV bloodletting is wrapped up as well: “Tory leadership debate exposes deep divisions”. The intro says it was a “bad-tempered” show.
“Blowtorch Britain” says the Mirror, as “42C record heat is on”. The “revellers” shown jumping into the sea at Brighton look happy enough to brave the conditions.
Continue reading...Report had claimed Boris Johnson tried to hire his now wife as chief of staff when foreign secretary, but then it was deleted
At first glance, the story appeared to be the political scoop of the weekend.
On Saturday, the Times reported claims that Boris Johnson had tried to hire his now wife as his chief of staff when he was foreign secretary.
Continue reading...Military figures and MPs on list along with staff from most major British newspapers and broadcasters
Russia has banned 29 members of the British media, including five Guardian journalists, from entering the country, its foreign ministry has said.
Moscow said the sweeping action was a response to western sanctions and the “spreading of false information about Russia”, as well as “anti-Russian actions of the British government”.
Continue reading...No 10 says PM feels reporters must be free to report what they are told, after widely-condemned Angela Rayner article.
This live blog is closed, please follow our dedicated liveblog for updates on Russia’s war on Ukraine
In an interview with Sky News this morning Dominic Raab, the justice secretary and deputy PM, claimed that Labour’s proposed windfall tax on energy companies (its key proposal to address the cost of living crisis) would be “disastrous”. He said:
If you look at Labour’s policy, you asked about it - of a windfall tax - that would damage investment in energy supplies we need and hike bills. It’s disastrous. It’s not serious.
What this shows is they’re coming up with frankly ill-thought through policies, but we have got a plan, a concerted plan, and I think that’s what voters want to see.
Continue reading...David Dillon had been called to a meeting with Sir Lindsay Hoyle after running a story widely condemned as sexist
The Mail on Sunday’s editor has rejected a meeting with the House of Commons speaker after a story that accused Angela Rayner of “distracting” Boris Johnson with her legs.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle had called the newspaper’s editor, David Dillon, to a meeting after it ran the story, which has been widely condemned as sexist by MPs of all political parties and prompted discussion about misogyny in Westminster.
Continue reading...Speaker seeks meeting with Mail on Sunday editor as PM threatens to unleash ‘terrors of the earth’
Conservative whips have said they are trying to find out the identity of the Tory MP responsible for misogynistic attacks on Angela Rayner, with a view to taking disciplinary action after Boris Johnson threatened to unleash “the terrors of the earth” against the culprit.
The prime minister hit out at the “sexist, misogynistic tripe” in the Mail on Sunday, which ran allegations from an anonymous MP that Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, deliberately tried to distract Johnson by crossing and uncrossing her legs in the House of Commons.
Continue reading...Ten years after settling case against News of the World, actor now taking action against another Rupert Murdoch title
Hugh Grant is leading a renewed attempt to prove phone hacking took place at the Sun, even as Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper continues to maintain no illegality took place there.
The actor has followed Paul Gascoigne and Sienna Miller in bringing a so-called “Sun-only” phone-hacking claim, specifically alleging that illegality took place at the daily tabloid in the 2000s. Rebekah Brooks, the current chief executive of Murdoch’s News UK business, was editor of the Sun during the period in question.
Continue reading...ICO finds insufficient evidence against those suspected of capturing footage of minister with colleague
No one will be prosecuted over the leak of CCTV footage showing Matt Hancock engaged in a clinch with a colleague in his office, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has announced.
The footage and stills of the embrace, which prompted his resignation as health secretary, were leaked to the Sun in June last year. It was most likely obtained by someone using their phone to record a CCTV screen, the ICO said.
Continue reading...Analysis: newspapers have attracted record numbers of readers seeking trusted sources in uncertain times
From the pandemic and the war in Ukraine to the Westminster partygate saga, newspapers are benefiting from a financially lucrative news boom. However, is the news industry enjoying a one-off blip in the battle for survival against big tech, or is this proof that publishers have finally forged commercial models fit for the new media age?
In a sign of the shifting fortunes amid unprecedented news events, Rupert Murdoch’s Times and Sunday Times last week reported a doubling of operating profits to their highest level since 1990 and the Sun, a one-time cash cow turned high-profile casualty of the digital age, is within £1m of returning to operating profit for the first time in a decade.
Continue reading...Claim against Associated Newspapers is reportedly related to article on prince’s security arrangements
Prince Harry has launched a libel action days after the Mail on Sunday published claims about problems with his security arrangements.
Court filings show Harry made a claim against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) on Wednesday afternoon. The claims are reportedly related to an article published by the Mail on Sunday under the headline “Revealed: How Harry tried to keep his legal fight over bodyguards secret”.
Continue reading...Vardy is suing Rooney for libel over allegation that Vardy leaked stories from Rooney’s private Instagram account
Rebekah Vardy said she would “love” to leak stories about Coleen Rooney to the media, according to messages disclosed at the high court.
The court filings suggest Vardy and her former agent Caroline Watt had an ongoing relationship with reporters at the Sun newspaper and discussed at length how to leak stories to the tabloid.
Continue reading...Analysis: Duchess of Sussex says she faced ‘deception, intimidation and calculated attacks’ and suffered a miscarriage
The privacy victory over the Mail on Sunday has seemingly exacted a toll on the Duchess of Sussex, who in vigorously pursuing the case went far further than any other present-day royal in taking on the tabloid culture.
The court of appeal stressed “no expense” was spared in fighting and defending the legal action over publication of extensive extracts of her private letter to her estranged father. As losers, Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), publishers of the newspaper and Mail Online, will bear the brunt.
Continue reading...ANL had brought appeal after duchess sued publisher over articles relating to letter she sent to estranged father
The Duchess of Sussex called for a reshaping of the tabloid newspaper industry and said she had been patient in the face of “deception, intimidation, and calculated attacks” as the Mail on Sunday lost its appeal in its three-year privacy battle with her over a letter to her estranged father.
Meghan sued Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL), also the publisher of Mail Online, over five articles reproducing parts of the “personal and private” letter to Thomas Markle, 77, in August 2018.
Continue reading...The Duchess of Sussex’s case against the Associated Newspapers offered much drama this week which looks set to continue
An 11th-hour intervention, an admission of forgetfulness, and an apology to the court; the potentially explosive developments in the Duchess of Sussex’s privacy case against the Mail on Sunday offered much drama this week.
And it may be far from over. Associated Newspapers Ltd (ANL) wants the court of appeal to overturn a judge’s ruling that the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online breached the duchess’s privacy in publishing extracts of her letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle, 77, and for the issues to go to trial.
Continue reading...Duchess says in messages to aide that Harry was receiving ‘constant berating’ from family over Thomas Markle
The Duchess of Sussex chose to write a letter to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, to protect Prince Harry from “constant berating” from the royal family to do something to stop him talking to the media, texts have revealed.
Meghan also believed a letter was better than an email or text as it “does not open the door for a conversation”.
Continue reading...Melanie Chisholm, Boyzone’s Shane Lynch and S Club 7’s Hannah Spearritt latest to allege voicemail interception
A group of 1990s pop stars are among the latest individuals to launch phone-hacking cases against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, as the scandal that has dogged the company for more than 15 years continues to rumble on at the high court.
Melanie Chisholm from the Spice Girls, Shane Lynch from Boyzone, Hannah Spearritt from S Club 7, and Steps’s Ian Watkins and Lee Latchford-Evans have recently filed claims against the company.
Continue reading...