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Hugh Grant at a Hacked Off press conference
Hugh Grant at a Hacked Off press conference. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters
Hugh Grant at a Hacked Off press conference. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

Hugh Grant will fight until election to derail press regulation 'stitch-up'

This article is more than 11 years old
Actor vows to continue fight if he and fellow Hacked Off campaigners do not succeed in defeating press self-regulation

Hugh Grant has vowed to continue to fight for a new press law right up to a general election in 2015, if he and fellow Hacked Off campaigners fail to derail what they believe is a "cosy stitch up" between politicians and newspaper editors for continued self-regulation.

Grant was speaking on Monday as victims of press intrusion including former police officer Jacqui Hames denounced David Cameron for rejecting Lord Justice Leveson's recommendations in full, including his view that statutory underpinning is "essential" for the new watchdog to work.

At a press briefing in Westminster the actor, who is fronting the Hacked Off campaign for tougher press regulation, said he believed they could win the battle. But if they did not win in the short term, he said that he was not going to give up.

Asked if Hacked Off would continue to campaign up to the next general election if Cameron agreed to newspaper demands for another chance at self-regulation, Grant said: "If I felt the public wasn't on our side, if I felt this wasn't such a clear cut case of borderline betrayal, I would think this is not worth the fight.

"But opinion polls continue to show us that 79, 80% of the public back Leveson's recommendation for statutory underpinning of a recognition body for a new regulator.

"This is a cause that I have every reason to believe will be won, and therefore I personally have no intention of easing up or giving up."

Hames said it appeared that "a cosy stitch-up with newspapers and owners" was being prepared. "A clear attempt is being made to sideline abuse," she added.

She said victims of the press had been "prepared to relive some of their worse memories" when they appeared before the Leveson inquiry and if Cameron continued with his "shady dealings" it will all have been for nothing.

Grant said the current behind-the-scenes negotiations between newspapers and politicians was "a sickening spectacle".

He warned: "People should know that Hacked Off ... is going nowhere, and will go nowhere and will be there for the forseeable future to ensure there is no cosy stitch-up for the eighth time running.

"They are not going to turn the face against the united views of the public who are very clearly on our side and on the side of the victims."

Representatives from Hacked Off are meeting senior figures in all parties this week in a continued push to persuade them that the Leveson report on future press regulation should be implemented in full.

It is believed they were meeting senior figures from the Labour party in private on Monday afternoon and have a meeting scheduled for later in the week with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg on the matter.

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More on this story

More on this story

  • Leveson report: summit of party leaders set for Wednesday morning

  • David Cameron considers royal charter on press backed by legislation

  • Labour asks for party leaders' meeting to thrash out Leveson deal

  • James Blunt settles phone-hacking action with News International

  • Phone hacking: model adviser's claim 'fantasy', says News International

  • The Leveson report is a charter for control freaks in policing

  • Press regulation: the post-Leveson deal to satisfy Nick Clegg?

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