The Sun has called for police to “say sorry” for Operation Elveden that saw 21 of its journalists arrested but none successfully convicted.

The £15m tax-payer funded operation took nearly five years and pursued journalists who paid state employees for stories using the offence of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office.

Sun crime reporter Anthony France (pictured), the only journalist convicted at trial as part of the probe, had his conviction quashed at the Court of Appeal yesterday, describing the nearly four years since his arrest as “sheer hell”.