Campbell Target Of Private Investigators, Court Hears

The former Number 10 communications chief Alastair Campbell has told the High Court that he and his wife were targeted by private investigators working for the publisher of the Daily Mirror

- SIAN HARRISON TOM PILGRIM

Mr Campbell, who served as spokesperson, press secretary and communications director under Tony Blair when he was prime minister, gave evidence in London yesterday – day 10 of the trial of damages claims brought by the Duke of Sussex and other high-profile figures against Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN) over alleged unlawful information gathering at its titles.

MGN, which also publishes the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, is contesting the claims over allegations its journalists were linked to voicemail interception, securing information through deception and hiring private investigators for unlawful activities.

Mr Campbell, who was a journalist for the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror before becoming a spin doctor, said in a witness statement he had been shown three documents by the claimants’ legal team, dating from when he was chief press secretary in Downing Street.

Two were invoices from private investigation firm Southern Investigations, both addressed to then-Daily Mirror investigations editor Gary Jones, and the third was a confidential hand-written note which contained numbers for financial accounts held by him and his wife Fiona Millar, he said.

His statement read: “I find the fact that MGN unlawfully obtained such private and personal financial information about myself and Fiona extremely troubling, especially because of my role in government at that time.

“The fact that they did not publish the information they obtained in no way minimises this view. I was, of course, very aware that the media viewed me as someone of public interest.