A Parliament Square hunger striker who was accused in the Daily Mail and the Sun of sneaking away to eat Macdonald’s burgers today accepted ‘substantial’but undisclosed libel damages from the two papers and a public apology at London’s High Court.

Speaking afterwards the man said he was so upset by the stories that he considered killing himself.

Mr Justice David Eady was told that Parameswaran Subramanyam, a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka, went on hunger strike on 7 April 2009 in an attempt to raise awareness of the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils and in a bid to persuade the UK Government to intervene.