Prince Harry and Elton John granted secret documents from Leveson Inquiry to support Daily Mail hacking claim

The documents listed the payments that the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday made to private investigators.

The notice, signed by Home Secretary James Cleverly and Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, permitted the claimants and their solicitors to use the ledger cards in support of their claims.

In a joint statement, Ms Frazer and Mr Cleverly said: “We do not consider that it is necessary in the public interest to withhold these documents from any disclosure or publication and have decided to vary the FRO [final restriction order] so as to allow the disclosure of these documents solely for the purposes of the proceedings.

“In this case, in our judgement, the public interest in promoting the just, speedy and economic resolution of the proceedings outweighs the countervailing public interests.”

Several high-profile figures, including Prince Harry and Sir Elton John, filed a lawsuit against Associated Newspapers, the Daily Mail publisher, alleging widespread illegal activity occurred.

Associated Newspapers has always strenuously denied the allegations.

Other high-profile figures including Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost, Simon Hughes and Doreen Lawrence, the mother of Stephen Lawrence, have also brought the claim against Associated Newspapers.

They have accused the publisher of phone hacking, placing listening devices in cars and recording private phone conversations.

The intervention by ministers will come as a major boost to the celebrities involved.

This is because in November, a judge ruled that the celebrities could not use leaked copies of their ledgers in their case as they were supplied confidentially to the Leveson inquiry.

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Associated Newspapers, which has always denied the allegations, applied to have the claims dismissed.

This was partly because they argued that the documents were sealed. The publisher also argued that the claims were outside a time limit for legal action.

But a judge dismissed this application in November, meaning the case can now be heard at trial.

It comes a month after Prince Harry withdrew a separate libel claim against the Daily Mail.

The father-of-two had sued the publisher over an article in the Mail on Sunday about his taxpayer-funded security arrangements after stepping back as a senior royal.

The Daily Mail said Harry would now be liable to pay its legal costs, which total £250,000.

GB News has contacted Associated Newspapers for comment.