By Nicola Croal

Copyright dailyrecord

Hugh Grant was amongst the crowds campaigning outside the Labour Party Conference at the ACC Liverpool on Monday afternoon. The 65-year-old actor joined campaigners from Hacked Off and 38 Degrees in Liverpool on Monday. Grant has been a vocal supporter of both groups for some time and was seen shaking hands and speaking with many of his fellow campaigners. He held a sign which read ‘Britain deserves a better press,’ and beamed for a photo the group. Hugh and journalist Jacqui Hames have recently introduced a new campaign which calls for the introduction of a new law to ‘protect the public from press lies and abuse’. Sharing a link to the campaign the actor wrote on X: “More now then ever, in a world in which truth and honest reporting is dying in front of our eyes, let’s put a fire under weak politicians and get a decent, brave UK press.” The petition has 35,000 signatures as of September 29 with an aim to get to 40,000, the Metro reports. It details: “For too long, the UK press have bullied people, harassed grieving families, and destroyed lives, all to sell papers. We’ve all seen the heartbreaking consequences. “They’ve hacked phones, listened to private messages, and published people’s personal information for profit. Time and again, parts of the UK press have shown that they can’t be trusted.” The Bridget Jones star was among the stars who were affected by the infamous phone hacking sandal in 2012. Hugh settled a claim against NGN relating to unlawful information gathering at the News Of The World in 2012 and in 2024 settled a lawsuit against The Sun. The star has been a vocal political activist over the past ten years, confessing that he considered a career in politics at one point. He told Entertainment Weekly : “It has crossed my mind. But what I really see close up is that it’s almost impossible to actually get anything done. It’s just impossible. You’ve got to bring so many people with you.” In the same interview, he explained: “I was really not interested in politics at all until I was about 50. Join the Daily Record’s WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. “I sneered at politics, and then, I found myself campaigning about the abuse of power in the British tabloid press here in the UK I spent an awful lot of time in the House of Parliament lobbying politicians and got to know them up close and see what weird specimens they were or became in the course of their careers. “Very often starting with conviction and passion and ending up a couple of decades later, these slightly monstrous professionals of the political game of snakes and ladders. “Their priorities were 1.) their own career, 2.) their own party and smashing the other party, and somewhere, way down the list, was what’s good for the country.”