Hugh Grant blasts police over phone hacking scandal

Hugh Grant has blasted the Metropolitan police for their behaviour after the recent phone hacking scandal.

The About a Boy actor, who launched his own investigation into phone hacking earlier this year by bugging a News of the World reporter after suspecting that his phone was intercepted by a private investigator, said that the police have been behaving in a "worrying and deeply mysterious way" since Scotland Yard invoked the Official Secrets Act to demand that journalists reveal the sources of news stories.

At a Liberal Democrat conference, Grant spoke on behalf of the Hacked Off campaign, saying: "It is a very worrying and upsetting development. A lot of us victims and campaigners had come to the view that the new police inquiry were good cops.

"It was a new investigation. They were embarrassed by the behaviour of their predecessors and colleagues. So for them to suddenly turn on their fellow goodies in this battle is worrying and deeply mysterious.

"Ultimately it is going to be politicians who get the job done, who get the thing fixed. So I am here with Hacked Off to have a look at the politicians in all three parties and see which of those politicians who appear to have grown balls in July actually still have them and get something done.

"The judgment is yet to be made. They had no choice back in July. The revelations were so shocking to the whole country that they had to talk a good game. Whether or not they will now play a good game really remains to be seen. That is one of the reasons we are going to these conferences - to put pressure on them to make sure they do as they said they'd do."

Grant also revealed that he was "disappointed" in Rupert and James Murdoch and encouraged reputable journalists to disconnect themselves from tabloid newspapers. "It always slightly saddens me when I see people buying this propaganda because it is simply not true," he added. "It is patently absurd."

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