The Duke of Sussex is bringing a bid to rely on a “secret agreement” between the royal family and senior executives working for Rupert Murdoch in order to take his claims of alleged unlawful information gathering against a tabloid publisher to trial.

Harry, 38, alleges he was targeted by journalists and private investigators working for News Group Newspapers (NGN) titles The Sun and the now-defunct News Of The World and has launched a claim for damages.

At a hearing in April, NGN asked Mr Justice Fancourt to throw out the duke’s case, arguing it was brought too late because he should have known sooner that he had a potential claim.