English actor Hugh Grant criticised Chancellor Sajid Javid on Thursday after Javid called the star '"incredibly rude" for not shaking his hand while they both attended a film premiere.
Grant hit out in a series of tweets against the Telegraph and the Daily Mail for not showing "my side of the story", clarifying that he declined to shake Mr Javid's hand due to him being dismissive toward press abuse victims when he served as culture secretary.
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) October 31, 2019
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) October 31, 2019
— Hugh Grant (@HackedOffHugh) October 31, 2019
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Javid said he held out his hand to the Hollywood star and in hopes of a hand shake but Grant rebuked the offer.
"I recognised him and put my hand out and said, 'Lovely to meet you', and you know what he does? He refuses to shake my hand", the chancellor said.
"He says, 'I am not shaking your hand'. I am completely shocked"
"He said, 'When you were culture secretary you didn't support my friends in (anti-media intrusion campaign) Hacked Off" adding that he though it was "incredibly rude".
According to PA, Grant's spokesperson said that the comment was in response to victims of the press who said that Mr Javid's "attitude in the meeting was 'borderline contemptuous'".
The Spokesman clarified that "Hugh would like to point out that the victims in question were not celebrities".
"They were people with personal family tragedies who had been abused by sections of the press."
Javid held the position of culture secretary between 2014 and 2015, later becoming home secretary before his elevation to chancellor in July this year under Boris Johnson.
Grant has been outspoken in his demands for tighter press regulation for almost a decade, after becoming a victim of the phone-hacking scandal and accusations that mass intrusion by British tabloids into phones was approved by the Tory government.
His dedication to press restrictions accelerated following the revelation that the voicemail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler was hacked by Rupert Murdoch's News of the World.
According to the BBC, the 59-year old actor donated to the Hacked Off Campaign last year, of which he is a director. This came after the Mirror Group apologised for the hacking of people's phones and paid an undisclosed sum to various victims of the scandal.
