Prince Harry allowed to pursue phone hacking case against Mail

Prince Harry, Elton John and Doreen Lawrence have welcomed being given the green light to continue their legal case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, after it lost an attempt to have their cases thrown out at the high court.

- Alexandra Topping

The three, along with David Furnish, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley and Simon Hughes, brought legal action against Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL) for alleged unlawful information-gathering.

The news is a significant blow to the publisher, which had - until now escaped the barrage of lawsuits faced by rival publishers, such as Rupert Murdoch's News UK, which have spent 15 years dealing with claims of illegal activity at their newspapers, often related to phone hacking or obtaining material illegally.

But, in a setback to the claimants, the court also ruled that the seven could not use leaked copies of documents that were confidentially supplied to the Leveson inquiry by the Daily Mail.

In March, the Daily Mail, which has maintained the claims are "preposterous smears", asked a judge to rule in its favour without a trial, arguing the legal challenges against it were brought "far too late".

In yesterday's ruling, Mr Justice Nicklin said ANL had "not been able to deliver a 'knockout blow' to the claims of any of these claimants".