Hugh Grant has hit out at Keir Starmer’s government, saying they have “personally betrayed” the victims of the phone-hacking scandal since coming into power.
For years, Grant has campaigned for justice for the phone-hacking victims after he himself was affected by the scandal in 2012.
In an interview with ITV’s Tom Bradby, the actor hit out at Labour for failing to follow through on promises they made while in opposition.
Grant said all the phone-hacking victims feel “personally betrayed” by Keir Starmer’s government, and said it was hard to watch the prime minister forging close relationships with major newspapers since coming to power.
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He said: “All the victims feel personally betrayed by all the politicians, and most depressingly by this Labour government.”
The Bridget Jones star said Labour were “marvellous” to the victims of press abuse when they were in opposition, but that there was “dead silence” from the party in the lead-up to last year’s election.
Grant accused Labour and Starmer of making the “mistaken decision” to “make nice” with the major newspaper barons for the sake of their political careers.
“It’s pretty hard to stomach for the families who were promised so much,” he added.
Grant has joined calls for the introduction of a new law to ‘protect the public from press lies and abuse’, and appeared alongside campaigners outside Labour’s party conference this week.
He told ITV: “We’re asking the prime minister to do something that makes newspapers obey basic standards of decency.
“If you don’t have reliable press, you’re in real trouble, you’re left to the cowboys of social media.”
At the time of writing, a petition calling for a law to be introduced has amassed just over 42,000 signatures.
It states: “For too long, the UK press have bullied people, harassed grieving families, and destroyed lives, all to sell papers. We’ve all seen the heartbreaking consequences.
“They’ve hacked phones, listened to private messages, and published people’s personal information for profit. Time and again, parts of the UK press have shown that they can’t be trusted.”
Sharing a link on X to the campaign, organised by Hacked Off and 38 Degrees, Grant wrote: “More now then ever, in a world in which truth and honest reporting is dying in front of our eyes, let’s put a fire under weak politicians and get a decent, brave UK press.”