After the monumental case between Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Prince Harry, ex-Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, made a criminal complaint to the Met and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) on 26 April 2025. What the police and government do is still being decided, but the added voice of a senior politician is ensuring that the press is being held  accountable. 

The Phone Hacking Scandal generated outrage throughout the country in 2011. From the hacking of phones of celebrities to politicians to victims of terrorist attacks, the tabloid press was systematically intercepting voicemails, blagging (using a different identity to gain information), and even going through bins. After Nick Davies’ article, News of the World (NotW), closed down an Inquiry was set up by Lord Justice Leveson in 2012 to look into the culture, ethics, and practices of the press.  

However, since then, NGN have spent over £1 billion on settlements in phone hacking cases. Due to the nature of the justice system, many such as Hugh Grant, couldn’t afford to go further than settle with NGN. If any claimant lost in a trial, they would be forced to pay the substantial costs of NGN legal fees as well as their own. As a result, when NGN was taken to court by Prince Harry, excitement bubbled at the prospect of someone who was willing to and could afford to take the media company to court. While the case did settle, an apology was issued by the Murdoch company for the hacking that happened at The Sun.  

As a result of the apology as well as statements made by senior officers involved in the original police investigation into Phone Hacking, Brown made the complaint. This was a decision informed by discoveries made by Nick Davies in 2024.owevHo The JThe ;l’ The journalist shockingly exposed how phone hacking may have continued beyond 2006 and even occurred during the Leveson Inquiry in 2012.  

Evidence suggested that over 31 million emails had been deleted in 2010 after executives at Rupert Murdoch’s company were asked to preserve evidence when actress Sienna Miller threatened to sue NotW. All the emails and hard drives that belonged to Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of the UK branch of NGN, were destroyed or lost and evidence was also hidden in a safe under Brooks’ floorboards. This was over 12 years’ worth of evidence from when hacking first started at the Murdoch paper in 1994, which was suddenly gone. 

Brown argues that by destroying emails, NGN “designed an elaborate cover-up.” However, this was not discovered by the time the investigation into NGN ended in 2015. The senior officers, who spoke to Brown, argued they were misled at the time and that, “if we had known this in 2011, we would have investigated fully and taken a different course of action including considering arrests.”  

This not only suggests that senior figures such as Rebekah Brooks and Will Lewis (the general manager of NGN at the time and now the CEO of The Washington Post) lied to police in the investigation, but also at the Leveson Inquiry, An inquiry which had an effect on government policy and how the press should be regulated.  

The officers have gone as far as to say that Will Lewis could have been arrested for perverting the course of justice, not only for being involved in the deletion policy, but for attempting to incriminate Gordon Brown and the senior politician Tom Watson for theft and bribery. An investigative officer stated that “if I had known this, I would have made arrests for obstruction of justice.” 

Lewis has previously denied any wrongdoing. NGN also deny any wrongdoing in relation to perverting the course of justice, as well as the illegal destruction of evidence.  

The Ex-Prime Minister argues that “the next steps are clear” and that the investigation should be reopened. Whether the police go beyond their request for the transcripts from the Prince Harry case, is still unclear.  

Questions remain over press behaviour and as Gordon Brown has made clear, “all of us benefit from showing that there is a difference between an honest media and one that corrupts the currency.” 

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