Two things are true at once: Prince Harry scored an unqualified, bombshell victory in his case against NGN, and it’s a damn shame that the whole mess won’t go to trial. The trial had the potential to be what amounted to a second Leveson Inquiry. The Leveson Inquiry was the huge public hearing back in 2010 and 2011, where some-but-not-all of the British media’s criminal activities were exposed. Post-Leveson, a lot of people sued various outlets and got a lot of settlements. What also happened post-Leveson is that there were no real consequences for the press beyond the financial hits. In fact, some laws were changed to make it more difficult for people to sue. The criminal investigations into the newspapers died on the vine as well. For years, people have wanted “Leveson 2,” a long-awaited second public inquiry which would hopefully do more to fix these festering problems. Well, Downing Street says it won’t happen.
The Government has said it will not launch a fresh inquiry into wrongdoing by the press – despite an admission from the publishers of The Sun that private investigators working for the newspaper “undertook illegal activity” between 1996 and 2011 while probing Prince Harry’s private life.
At the thirteenth hour, the landmark trial of The Sun owner, News Group Newspapers, has been settled through an agreement with Labour peer Lord Tom Watson and the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry. The settlement avoids an explosive trial over allegations of phone-hacking, illegal activity, and a cover-up at The Sun and the now shuttered News of the World. But, as part of the agreement, and after years of denials, The Sun has – for the first time – admitted that investigators working for it were engaged in unlawful activity.
In a joint statement on what it described as the “monumental victory”, Prince Harry and Lord Watson called for a new police and parliamentary investigation following the admission.
“The rule of law must now run its full course,” it stated. “Prince Harry and Tom Watson join others in calling for the police and Parliament to investigate not only the unlawful activity now finally admitted, but the perjury and cover ups along the way.”
“It’s clear now this has occurred throughout this process, including through sworn evidence in inquiries and court hearings, and in testimony to Parliament, until today’s final collapse of NGN’s defence,” it added. “Today, the lies are laid bare. Today, the cover-ups are exposed. And today proves that no one stands above the law. The time for accountability has arrived.”
However, when asked by Byline Times about the new admission from News UK following the settlement, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman appeared to reject the Prince Harry and Lord Watson’s call for a new inquiry into press illegality.
“Obviously, there’s a settlement which I can’t comment on,” the spokesman said in a lobby briefing. “More broadly, newspapers play a vital role in a functioning democracy. Clearly, they must operate within the bounds of the law and certain codes. You’ve got the Government’s plans as set out in the manifesto [on] not going ahead with a new inquiry.”
This is the political reality, unfortunately. The British press insists that Keir Starmer is deeply unpopular, therefore Starmer doesn’t have the political capital to take on the press, therefore no Leveson 2. To hear the royal reporters, you’d think that Prince Harry was supposed to swoop in and completely fix this system. What Harry was actually going to do was expose the rot at the heart of multiple British institutions, which is exactly why the Murdochs went so far to settle with him and admit SOME of the criminal sh-t they were up to.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer delivers a statement at 10 Downing Street in London, after the Government announced an inquiry into how the state failed to identify the risk posed by Axel Rudakubana, who killed three girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport. Featuring: Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Where: London, United Kingdom When: 21 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a reception he is hosting to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at 10 Downing Street, central London Featuring: Keir Starmer Where: London, United Kingdom When: 22 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a reception he is hosting to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at 10 Downing Street, central London Featuring: Keir Starmer Where: London, United Kingdom When: 22 Jan 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Can any UK readers comment on whether British law allows for criminal perjury charges against those who lied at the Levenson inquiry?
I don’t know unfortunately. Perjury is a serious offence whichever way you look at it.
I’m so disappointed with the Starmer government.
They are at best Tory-Lite in so many decisions that they make, this being one of them.
It’s not only Prince Harry or Tom Watson calling for Leveson II, and it’s not a new thing either. There have been initiatives like Hacked Off trying to get some sort of justice for the many, many victims of the media for years. I mean, they mentioned the number 1300 in conjunction with The Scum alone, so the actual number must be disproportionately higher.
But then, we all saw various members of Starmer’s cabinet being entertained by Murdoch and his ilk, making me wonder what NGN have on them…
I think maybe the government is being leant on by the BRF in this instance, given that they are in league with the Murdoch press.
Sir Keir himself ran when Murdoch called. So… not surprised.
Downing Street does as Murdoch says, whether it is labour or the Tories in power, they want to win the next election so they have to appease Murdoch.
I wonder if there will ever be a UK government with the guts to at least try to restore some integrity to the British press. The UK is ruled by three corrupt entities now- the press, the government, the monarchy. There seems to be not a jot of integrity in any of them. Where are the people? You can’t bring criminals to justice when criminals are in charge, or the government is beholden to criminals.
Personally speaking, this government is a lot less corrupt than the previous one.
However, as it is the case with the USA, they had a chance to vote for a democratic and more ‘socialist’ government and they chose… Boris Johnson.
The fault is with the voters. There’s a reason why Starmer and Labour won with a landslide – they were more appealing to disappointed Conservative voters.
Starmer’s a twat. His leadership’s weak. Not surprised he won’t go ahead with this. From a Brit who would never vote for him.
I voted for him and would do it again. UK isn’t on the left anyway (excluding Scotland but you see wat happened to the SNP…).
I’ve often believed Murdoch made a deal with the devil to single handily destroy democracy and any thing good or decent in this world. He certainly controls far to many weak people in power.
It could also mean the investigation gives the BRF criminal exposure. Charles is immune as sovereign, but William the heir is not. Even if no Windsor goes to the dock the international embarrassment would be great. I think Charles put in a call to No 10 to not go through with it. But they just signaled to UK enemies it can be blackmailed.
Not just charles, but Keen, Ma Midds, Uncle Hookers and Blow, all of that disgusting Midd family.
The Midds leaked about Harry’s personal life for years via KatieN, Tanna, etc. If that leaking led to the persecution of Harry’s girlfriend and contributed to her suicide?
There’s also the Midds (paid) connection to two Fail on Sunday editors who were their PR consultants for years. Add in Carole’s illegal shenanigans with switching her company to a different format – in the midst of it failing for years – and leaving 2.4 million in debt. Who contributed to covering that up in exchange for Sussex stories?
There are plenty of RRs and paps who had insider info via the Midds, people who were used to cover up Goldsmith crimes and to use Harry (and later Meghan) as Kate’s sacrificial lambs.
MP Watson who also got the apology said they were giving all the documents and info to the police and they want them to open investigation. Even if Harry and Watson went ahead with the trial (assuming Murdoch didn’t admit guilt and give apology) and the judge found Murdoch papers liable, it wouldn’t change anything. No political party wants to go after the tabloids. It didn’t happen with Daily Mirror either, even though Harry won his civil case.
Could the met police start an investigation on their own without Starmer’s support once they get the dossier? Not saying I think they will by any means but it could be the met police or Starmer right?
I can’t see that happening, as it would reveal who in the Met was selling information to the tabloids on criminal cases.
No the real reason why Starmer will not be pursuing Leveson 2 is because he made a deal with Rupert Murdoch. An endorsement from the Sun/Times for Labour in exchange for no further public enquiries into the press.
I’ve said it many times before and will say it again, “they are all moral cowards”.
This was my worry yesterday that the police and politicians wouldn’t do their jobs to investigate. So here we are no investigation.
Only solution to get all the information out into the open: Spare 2.0! But Harry is probably done with them.
I’d love to see Spare 2.0 with transcripts of all the exchanges between the media and the palaces. But I think Harry is done with them, as you say. He didn’t even really bother to update Spare 1 for the paperback version. The personal costs to him and his family, from the palaces and from the media, are too high.
Now if the victims were William and Kate I’d have to wonder if they would have went further into it…
They did go after William but William settled and said his mum was paranoid. Still hoping that William will publicly apologise to the Spencers.
No surprise there. Starmer cozied up to Murdoch before the general election. Starmer got the endorsement of the Sun on the last day of the campaign. A lot of people in Labour are disappointed that Leveson part 2 is not part of the manifesto but Starmer probably exchanged the endorsement for no Leveson part 2 inquiry.
I do not have hope for a Met police investigation either. The Met said they would look into the findings findings of Harry’s court case against the Mirror group which Harry won in 2023 and we have heard nothing further about it for over a year. They also said that they would look into a complaint by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the deleted emails and NGN’s false claim that they deleted the emails because NGN had false information that there was a plan to pass on these emails to Gordon and Watson. Nothing about this investigation either.
The Met police is independent and can open an investigation independently without the support of Starmer. If the investigation concludes there is evidence of criminality and peoplke can be charged the Met police then pass on all the information of the investigation to the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) which makes then the decision to prosecute or not. The CPS is also independent. However Leveson part 2 was supposed to look into the relationship between the journalists and police. i do not think that there is any interest at the Met police to open this can of worms and as long there is not enough outside pressure IMO there is no motivation to open an investigation
One should not be surprised at the UK government’s response, they just don’t have the backbone to do what is right. The police and legal system are just as bad, despite it is clear there was illegal activity, false evidence and outright lying, nothing will happen, no one wants to rock the boat.
We are now living in a period of government for the oligarchs by the oligarchs.
“The real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and where the poor rule, that is a democracy.”
Aristotle
Wise.
Shame. The government really needs to sort out the press, although I don’t think Labour can control the press without screams about freedom of speech and the Tories are happy not to. The trouble is a free speech requires those in charge to have integrity.
The Tories crippled almost every aspect of British society during over a decade in power, I don’t know what we can expect from Starmer after one year.
Starmer is trying to do something, the problem is the country is in such a mess it is going to take time and he needs to win the next election as well, If they Sun turns against him he is unlikely to win. Murdoch has far too much power.
There’s a reason why the BM tried every tricks in the book to oust Jeremy Corbyn as the Labour Party Leader & installed “Tory-lite” Starmer as the party leader. Corbyn was even kicked out of the Labour Party by Starmer before last year’s election. Corbyn has integrity & gut. If he was the PM, there will be a Leveson 2. Alas, the almighty British media bosses got their ways.