Hugh Grant "Aghast" at PM David Cameron's Failure to Back Leveson Report in Phone-Hacking Scandal

Love Actually star claims the British PM has climbed back in bed with the tabloids

By Alyssa Toomey Dec 07, 2012 4:42 PMTags
Hugh GrantRamey Photo

Hugh Grant will keep on talking as long as it takes to find justice in the infamous British phone-hacking scandal.

After Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to support a system of press regulation in regards to the News International phone-hacking scandal, he has now—according to Grant—gone back on his word and jumped back in bed with the tabloids.

Last week, Lord Justice Leveson published his report on U.K. press standards with recommendations for Internet privacy laws, and the Hollywood actor turned antihacking lobbyist claims the public is "aghast" at David Cameron's disapproval of the statutory underpinning of press regulation. 

"To say that over and over again and then within hours of a very mild report being published to turn his back on those victims and jump straight back in between the warm sheets with the newspaper barons, I think was an act that the whole country was aghast at," Grant said in an interview with Parliament's House magazine.

"And I think maybe the prime minister and those Tories who are opposed to any kinds of statutory underpinning are beginning to see that the country has rumbled that," he added.

The Love Actually star currently serves as a spokesperson for the antihacking lobby group Hacked Off, and he also testified in the Leveson hacking inquiry. 

In addition to detailing the public's disapproval, Grant also expressed frustration that Cameron failed to clarify the scope of his support:

"I can't pretend that I'm not disappointed that in two meetings with the prime minister with Hacked Off and one meeting which he had with the non-celebrity victims about three weeks ago, he made no mention at all of the fact that any kind of underpinning in law to an independent regulator would be a sticking point," Grant explained.  

"I would have expected the prime minister to make that clear—he was certainly asked," he stated. "So that's disappointing."