The Sun (United Kingdom)

File:The Sun Christening Mug.jpg

The Sun was first published as a broadsheet on 15 September 1964,{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/15/newsid_3068000/3068749.stm |title=The Sun newspaper is born |work=BBC News |date=15 September 2008|access-date=19 January 2009}} with a logo featuring a glowing orange disc.{{Cite web|url=http://www.stephenmarkeson.com/scrapbook/large/oldsunlogo.htm|title=Scrapbook – The IPC Sun logo|website=www.stephenmarkeson.com}} It was launched by owners IPC (International Publishing Corporation) to replace the failing Daily Herald on the advice of market researcher Mark Abrams. The paper was intended to add a readership of "social radicals" to the Herald{{'s}} "political radicals".James Curran and Jean Seaton Power Without Responsibility: the Press, Broadcasting and the Internet in Britain, Abingdon: Routledge, 2010, pp. 84–85. Of Abrams' work, Bernard Shrimsley wrote that 40 years later there supposedly was "an immense, sophisticated and superior middle class, hitherto undetected and yearning for its own newspaper.... As delusions go, this was in the El Dorado class".{{cite news|last=Shrimsley|first=Bernard|url=https://www.thetimes.com/comment/register/article/when-the-sun-failed-to-shine-for-the-middle-class-6cd639jkc6j|title=When The Sun failed to shine for the middle class|work=The Times|location=London|date=10 September 2004|access-date=11 June 2016}} {{subscription required}} Launched with an advertising budget of £400,000,Sandbrooik, p. 58. the brash new paper "burst forth with tremendous energy" according to The Times.The Times, 15 September 1964, pp. 10–11 Its initial print run of 3.5 million was attributed to "curiosity" and the "advantage of novelty", and had declined to the previous circulation of the Daily Herald (1.2 million) within a few weeks.

By 1969, according to Hugh Cudlipp, The Sun was losing about £2 million a year,Bill Grundy [http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/26th-july-1969/11/the-press "The Press: Of the Sun..."], The Spectator, 25 July 1969, p. 11. and had a circulation of 800,000. IPC decided to sell to stop the losses, according to Bernard Shrimsley in 2004, out of a fear that the unions would disrupt publication of the Mirror if they did not continue to publish the original Sun. Bill Grundy wrote in The Spectator in July 1969 that although it published "fine writers" in Geoffrey Goodman, Nancy Banks-Smith and John Akass among others, it had never overcome the negative impact of its launch at which it still resembled the Herald. The pre-Murdoch Sun was "a worthy, boring, leftish, popular broadsheet" in the opinion of Patrick Brogan in 1982.{{cite news|last=Brogan|first=Patrick|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/92429/rupert-murdoch-international-newspaper-empire|title=Citizen Murdoch|magazine=The New Republic|date=11 November 1982|access-date=5 December 2018}}

Robert Maxwell, a book publisher and Member of Parliament who was eager to buy a British newspaper, offered to take it off their hands and retain its commitment to the Labour Party but admitted there would be redundancies, especially among the printers. Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, had bought the News of the World, a sensationalist Sunday newspaper, the previous year, but the presses in the basement of his building in London's Bouverie Street were unused six days a week.Charles Stokes [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/aug/27/rupert-murdoch-the-sun "Rupert Murdoch aims for The Sun"], The Guardian, 27 August 1969 (2013 reprint).

Seizing the opportunity to increase his presence on Fleet Street, he made an agreement with the print unions by promising fewer redundancies if he acquired the newspaper. He assured IPC that he would publish a "straightforward, honest newspaper" which would continue to support Labour. IPC, under pressure from the unions, rejected Maxwell's offer, and Murdoch bought the paper for £800,000, to be paid in instalments.Greenslade, Ch. 9. He would later remark: "I am constantly amazed at the ease with which I entered British newspapers".{{cite book | last1 = Chippindale | first1 = Peter | last2 = Horrie | first2 = Chris | title = Stick it up your punter!: the uncut story of the Sun newspaper (Chapter 1) | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = London | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780671017828 }}

The Daily Herald had been printed in Manchester since 1930, as was the Sun after its original launch in 1964. Murdoch stopped publication there in 1969, which put the ageing Bouverie Street presses under extreme pressure as circulation grew. Additionally, Murdoch found he had such a rapport with Larry Lamb over lunch that other potential recruits as editor were not interviewed and Lamb was appointed as the first editor of the new Sun.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1366801/Sir-Larry-Lamb.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123123528/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1366801/Sir-Larry-Lamb.html|archive-date=23 January 2009|title=Sir Larry Lamb (obituary)|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|date=20 May 2000}} Lamb wanted Bernard Shrimsley to be his deputy, which Murdoch accepted as Shrimsley had been the second name on his list of preferences.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/bernard-shrimsley-06kfj2m37|title=Bernard Shrimsley|work=The Times|location=London|date=11 June 2016|access-date=11 June 2016}} {{subscription required}}

Lamb was scathing in his opinion of the Daily Mirror, where he had recently been employed as a senior sub-editor, and shared Murdoch's view that a paper's quality was best measured by its sales. Lamb regarded the Mirror as overstaffed and too focused on an ageing readership. Godfrey Hodgson of The Sunday Times interviewed Murdoch at this time and expressed a positive view of the rival's "Mirrorscope" supplement. Dropping a sample copy into a bin, Murdoch replied: "If you think we're going to have any of that upmarket shit in our paper, you're very much mistaken".

Lamb hastily recruited a staff of about 125 reporters, who were mostly selected for availability rather than their ability. That was about a quarter of what the Mirror then employed, and Murdoch had to draft in staff on loan from his Australian papers. Murdoch immediately relaunched The Sun as a tabloid and ran it as a sister paper to the News of the World. The Sun used the same printing presses, and the two papers were managed together at senior executive levels.

The tabloid Sun was first published on 17 November 1969, with a front page headlined "HORSE DOPE SENSATION", an ephemeral "exclusive".Roy Greenslade [https://www.theguardian.com/media/1999/nov/15/mondaymediasection.comment1 "Night the Sun came up"], The Guardian, 15 November 1999; Greenslade, [https://books.google.com/books?id=KPR0pB9UCS4C&pg=PA218 Press Gang], p. 218. An editorial on page 2 announced: "Today's Sun is a new newspaper. It has a new shape, new writers, new ideas. But it inherits all that is best from the great traditions of its predecessors. The Sun cares. About the quality of life. About the kind of world we live in. And about people". The first issue had an "exclusive interview" with the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson on page 9.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/tto/archive/article/1969-11-17/3/8.html|title=Murdoch's new Sun rises|work=The Times|location=London|date=17 November 1969|access-date=11 June 2016|page=3}} {{subscription required}} The paper copied the rival Daily Mirror in several ways. It was the same size and its masthead had the title in white on a red rectangle of the same colour as the Daily Mirror. These papers are now known as red tops. The Mirror{{'s}} "Live Letters" was matched by "Livelier Letters".Bruce Page, The Murdoch Archipelago, London: Simon & Schuster, 2003, p. 142.

Sex was used as an important element in the content and marketing of the paper from the start, which Lamb believed was the most important part of his readers' lives.Chippindale & Horrie, p. 30. The first topless Page 3 model appeared on 17 November 1970, Stephanie Rahn; she was tagged as a "Birthday Suit Girl" to mark the first anniversary of the relaunched Sun.{{cite book | last1 = Chippindale | first1 = Peter | last2 = Horrie | first2 = Chris | title = Stick it up your punter!: the uncut story of the Sun newspaper | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = London | year = 1999 | page= 28 | isbn = 9780671017828 }} A topless Page 3 model gradually became a regular fixture, and with increasingly risqué poses. Both feminists and many cultural conservatives saw the pictures as pornographic and misogynistic. Lamb later expressed some regret at introducing the feature, although he denied it was sexist. A Conservative council in Sowerby Bridge, Yorkshire, was the first to ban the paper from its public library, shortly after Page 3 began, because of its excessive sexual content.Chippindale and Horrie, pp. 47–8. Shrimsley, Lamb's deputy, came up with the headline, "The Silly Burghers of Sowerby Bridge" to describe the councillors. The decision was reversed after a sustained campaign by the newspaper itself lasting 16 months, and the election of a Labour-led council in 1971.Chris Horrie, [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1026989.stm "Flirty not dirty at 30"], BBC News (London), 17 November 2000.

The Labour MP Alex Lyon waved a copy of The Sun in the House of Commons and suggested the paper could be prosecuted for indecency. Sexually-related features such as "Do Men Still Want To Marry A Virgin?" and "The Way into a Woman's Bed" began to appear. Serialisations of erotic books were frequent; the publication of extracts from The Sensuous Woman while copies of the book were being seized by Customs produced a scandal and a significant amount of free publicity.Chippindale and Horrie, pp. 32–3.

Politically, The Sun in the early Murdoch years nominally continued to support Labour. It advocated a vote for the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson in the 1970 UK general election,{{cite book | last = Thomas | first = James | title = Popular newspapers, the Labour Party and British politics | publisher = Abingdon (UK): Routledge | location = London New York | year = 2005 | pages = 72–73 | isbn = 9780714653372 }} with the headline "Why It Must Be Labour";The Sun, 17 June 1970, cited by Roy Greenslade, Press Gang: How Newspapers Make Money From Propaganda, London: Pan Macmillan, 2003 [2004], p. 235. but by February 1974, it was calling for a vote for the Conservative Party led by Edward Heath and suggesting that it might support a Labour Party led by James Callaghan or Roy Jenkins. In the October election, an editorial asserted: "ALL our instincts are left rather than right and we would vote for any able politician who would describe himself as a Social Democrat". In the 1975 referendum on Britain continuing membership of the European Economic Community, it advocated a vote to stay in the Common Market.{{cite news|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jun/14/the-suns-brexit-call-is-unsurprising-but-it-has-symbolic-significance|title=The Sun's Brexit call is unsurprising but it has a symbolic significance|work=The Guardian|date=14 June 2016|access-date=14 June 2016}}

The editor, Larry Lamb, was originally from a Labour background with a socialist upbringing though his temporary replacement Bernard Shrimsley (1972–1975) was a middle-class uncommitted Conservative. An extensive advertising campaign on the ITV network that was voiced by actor Christopher Timothy,Léon Hunt, British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation London: Routledge, 1998, p. 27. may have helped The Sun to overtake the Daily Mirror{{'s}} circulation in 1978.Kevin Williams, Read All About It!: A History of the British Newspaper, Abingdon: Routledge, 2010, p. 197. Despite the industrial relations of the 1970s with the so-called "Spanish practices" of the print unions, The Sun was very profitable, enabling Murdoch to expand his operations to the United States from 1973.

The paper endorsed the Conservative Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 UK general election at the end of a process which had been under way for some time although The Sun had not initially been enthusiastic about Thatcher. On 3 May 1979, it ran the unequivocal front-page headline, "VOTE TORY THIS TIME".[https://web.archive.org/web/20090123123528/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1366801/Sir-Larry-Lamb.html Obituary: Larry Lamb], The Daily Telegraph, 20 May 2000. The Daily Star had been launched in 1978 by Express Newspapers, and by 1981 had begun to affect sales of The Sun. Bingo was introduced as a marketing tool, and a 2p drop in cover price removed the Daily Star{{'}}s competitive advantage, opening a new circulation battle which resulted in The Sun neutralising the threat of the new paper.Bruce Page The Murdoch Archipelago, London: Simon & Schuster, 2003 [2004], p. 331. The new editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie, took up his post in 1981 just after those developments,Greenslade, p. 421. and, according to Bruce Page, "changed the British tabloid concept more profoundly than [Larry] Lamb did". Under MacKenzie, the paper became "more outrageous, opinionated and irreverent than anything ever produced in Britain".Thomas, John, Popular Newspapers, the Labour Party and British Politics, London: Routledge, 2005, p. 89.

File:The Sun (Gotcha).png. This headline was published before it was known the sinking of the vessel had cost 368 lives.Page, Bruce,The Murdoch Archipelago, London: Simon & Schuster, 2003, p. 333.]]

The Sun became an ardent supporter of the Falklands War. The coverage "captured the zeitgeist" according to Roy Greenslade, assistant editor at the time (though privately an opponent of the war) but was also "xenophobic, bloody-minded, ruthless, often reckless, black-humoured and ultimately triumphalist".Roy Greenslade [https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/feb/25/pressandpublishing.falklands "A new Britain, a new kind of newspaper"], The Guardian, 25 February 2002. On 1 May, The Sun claimed to have "sponsored" a British missile. Under the headline "Stick This Up Your Junta: A Sun missile for Galtieri's gauchos",The Sun, 1 May 1982, cited in Greenslade Press Gang, p. 444. the newspaper published a photograph of a missile (actually a Polaris missile stock shot from the Ministry of Defence) which had a large Sun logo printed on its side with the caption "Here It Comes, Senors..." under it.Chippindale & Horrie, p. 138. The paper explained that it was "sponsoring" the missile by contributing to the eventual victory party on {{HMS|Invincible|R05|6}} when the war ended. In copy written by Wendy Henry, the paper said that the missile would shortly be used against Argentinian forces. Tony Snow, The Sun journalist on Invincible who had "signed" the missile, reported a few days later that it had hit an Argentinian target.

One of the paper's best known front pages, published on 4 May 1982, commemorated the torpedoing of the Argentine ship the General Belgrano by running the story under the headline "GOTCHA".{{cite journal|last=Richmond|first=Shane|year=2008|title=How SEO is changing journalism|journal=British Journalism Review|volume=19|issue=4|pages=51–55|doi=10.1177/0956474808100865|s2cid=62235664|url=http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2008/no4_richmond|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121223233611/http://www.bjr.org.uk/data/2008/no4_richmond|archive-date=23 December 2012|access-date=29 April 2009}} At MacKenzie's insistence, and against the wishes of Murdoch (the mogul was present because almost all the journalists were on strike),Roy Greenslade Press Gang, London: Pan Macmillan, 2003 [2004], p. 445. the headline was changed for later editions after the extent of Argentinian casualties became known.{{cite book | last1 = Chippindale | first1 = Peter | last2 = Horrie | first2 = Chris | title = Stick it up your punter!: the uncut story of the Sun newspaper (Chapter 7) | publisher = Simon & Schuster | location = London | year = 1999 | isbn = 9780671017828 }} John Shirley, a reporter for The Sunday Times, witnessed copies of this edition of The Sun being thrown overboard by sailors and marines on {{HMS|Fearless|L10|6}}.

After {{HMS|Sheffield|D80|6}} was wrecked by an Argentinian attack, The Sun was heavily criticised and even mocked in the Daily Mirror and The Guardian for its coverage of the war, and the wider media queried the veracity of official information and worried about the number of casualties, The Sun gave its response. "There are traitors in our midst", wrote leader writer Ronald Spark on 7 May, accusing commentators on Daily Mirror and The Guardian, plus the BBC's defence correspondent Peter Snow, of "treason" for aspects of their coverage.The Sun, 7 May 1982, cited in Chippindale & Horrie, p. 146; Bruce Page, The Murdoch Archipelago, London: Pocket Books, 2003, p. 334. The satirical magazine Private Eye mocked and lampooned what they regarded as the paper's jingoistic coverage, most memorably with the mock-Sun headline "KILL AN ARGIE, WIN A METRO!", to which MacKenzie is said to have jokingly responded, "Why didn't we think of that?"

These years included what was called "spectacularly malicious coverage"Nick Davies Flat Earth News, London: Chatto & Windus, p. 198. of the Labour Party by The Sun and other newspapers. During the 1983 UK general election, The Sun ran a front page featuring an unflattering photograph of Michael Foot, then aged almost 70, claiming he was unfit to be Prime Minister on grounds of his age, appearance and policies, alongside the headline "Do You Really Want This Old Fool To Run Britain?"[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1209115.stm "Sun still shines for Blair"], BBC News, 8 March 2001. A year later, The Sun made clear its enthusiastic support for the re-election of Ronald Reagan as president of the United States; Reagan was two weeks shy of his 74th birthday when he started his second term, in January 1985. On 1 March 1984, the newspaper extensively quoted an American psychiatrist claiming that British left-wing politician Tony Benn was "insane", with the psychiatrist discussing various aspects of Benn's supposed pathology."Benn on the couch", The Sun, 1 March 1984. The story, which appeared on the day of the Chesterfield by-election in which Benn was standing, was discredited when the psychiatrist quoted by The Sun publicly denounced the article, describing the false quotes attributed to him as "absurd". The Sun had apparently fabricated the entire piece. The newspaper made frequent scathing attacks on what the paper called the "loony left" element within the Labour Party,{{cite book|first1=Ivor|last1=Crewe|first2=Anthony|last2=King|title=SDP: the Birth, Life and Death of the Social Democratic Party|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|isbn=978-0198280507|date=1995|page=367}} and on institutions supposedly controlled by it. Ken Livingstone, the leader of the left-wing Greater London Council, was described as "the most odious man in Britain"{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/11/13/profile_ken_livingstone_feature.shtml|title=London: Candidates & Parties|website=BBC News|date=20 May 2008}} in October 1981.{{cite book|first1=James|last1=Curran|first2=Ivor|last2=Gabor|first3=Julian|last3=Petley|title=Culture Wars: the Media and the British Left|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|location=Edinburgh, Scotland, UK|date=2005|asin=B07FF86R62|page=45}}

During the miners' strike of 1984–85, The Sun supported the police and Margaret Thatcher's government against the striking NUM miners, and in particular the union's president, Arthur Scargill. On 23 May 1984, The Sun prepared a front page with the headline "Mine Führer" and a photograph of Scargill with his arm in the air, a pose which made him look as though he was giving a Nazi salute. The print workers at The Sun refused to print it.{{cite book|first=Greg|last=Philo|title=War and Peace News|publisher=Open University Press|date=1985|page=138}} The Sun strongly supported the April 1986 bombing of Libya by the US, which was launched from British bases. Several civilians were killed during the bombing. Their leader was "Right Ron, Right Maggie".The Sun, 16 April 1986. That year, Labour MP Clare Short attempted in vain to persuade Parliament to outlaw the pictures on Page Three, and gained criticism from the newspaper for her stand. During the 1987 UK general election, The Sun ran a mock-editorial entitled "Why I'm Backing Kinnock, by Stalin".[http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/in_depth/election_battles/1987_camp.stm "1987: Three on the trot for Thatcher"], BBC News Vote 2001. Retrieved 4 May 2007.

Murdoch responded to some of the criticisms of the newspaper by saying that critics were "snobs" who want to "impose their tastes on everyone else". MacKenzie claimed the same critics were people who, if they ever had a "popular idea", would have to "go and lie down in a dark room for half an hour". Both have pointed to the huge commercial success of the Sun during that period, and its establishment as Britain's top-selling newspaper, claiming that they are "giving the public what they want". That conclusion was disputed by critics. John Pilger said that a late-1970s edition of the Daily Mirror, which replaced the usual celebrity and domestic political news items with an entire issue devoted to his own front-line reporting of the genocide in Pol Pot's Cambodia, not only outsold The Sun on the day it was issued, but became the only edition of the Daily Mirror to ever sell every single copy issued, something never achieved by The Sun.

In January 1986, Murdoch shut down the Bouverie Street premises of The Sun and News of the World, and moved operations to the new Wapping complex in East London, substituting the electricians' union for the print unions as his production staff's representatives, and greatly reducing the number of staff employed to print the papers. A year-long picket by sacked workers was eventually defeated (see Wapping dispute).

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During that period, The Sun gained a reputation for running sensationalist stories of questionable veracity. On 13 March 1986, the newspaper published one of its best known headlines: "FREDDIE STARR ATE MY HAMSTER". The story alleged that comedian Freddie Starr, while staying at the home of a writer and friend of his named Vince McCaffrey and his partner Lea LaSalleMax Clifford and Angela Levin Max Clifford: Read All About It, London: Random House, 2010, p. 123. in Birchwood, Cheshire, had, after returning from a performance at a nightclub in the early hours, found little to eat in their house. LaSalle was reported as saying that Starr put her pet hamster "between two slices of bread and started eating it".Chippindale, Peter; Horrie, Chris (1999). Stick it up your punter!, p. 233, The account in this book deviates from the version in the 2012 book co-written by Max Clifford. For example, Vince McCaffrey's first name is given as Tom, while La Salle is Starr's ex-girlfriend.

According to Max Clifford: Read All About It, written by Clifford and Angela Levin, La Salle invented the story out of frustration with Starr, who had been working on a book with McCaffrey. She contacted an acquaintance who worked for The Sun in Manchester. The story reportedly delighted MacKenzie, who was keen to run it, and Max Clifford, who had been Starr's public relations agent. Starr had to be persuaded that the apparent revelation would not damage him, and the attention helped to revive his career.Clifford & Lewin, p. 125; Chippindale & Horrie, p. 235. In his 2001 autobiography Unwrapped, Starr wrote that the incident was a fabrication: "I have never eaten or even nibbled a live hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, mouse, shrew, vole or any other small mammal".{{cite book |title=Unwrapped |last=Starr |first=Freddie |year=2001 |publisher=Virgin Books |location=London, England |isbn=1-85227-961-3 |page=300 }}

Fuelled by MacKenzie's preoccupation with the subject, stories in The Sun spread rumours about the sexual orientation of famous people, especially pop stars.Chippindale & Horrie, pp. 305–6. The Sun ran a series of false stories about Elton John from 25 February 1987, which eventually resulted in a total of 17 libel suits.Roy Greenslade Press Gang, p.499, 736, n.93 They began with an invented account of the singer having sexual relationships with rent boys. The singer-songwriter was abroad on the day indicated in the story, as former Sun journalist John Blake, recently poached by the Daily Mirror, soon discovered.Roy Greenslade Press Gang, p.499; Chippindale & Horrie, p. 315. After further stories, in September 1987, The Sun accused John of having his Rottweiler guard dogs' voice boxes surgically removed.Chippindale & Horrie, p. 322. In November, the Daily Mirror found their rival's only source for the rent boy story, who admitted it was a totally fictitious concoction created for money.Chippindale & Horrie, p. 322; Roy Greenslade, Press Gang, p. 499, 736, n. 96. The inaccurate story about his dogs, actually Alsatians, put pressure on The Sun, and John received £1 million in an out-of-court settlement, then the largest damages payment in British history. The Sun ran a front-page apology on 12 December 1988, under the banner headline "SORRY, ELTON".Chippindale & Horrie, pp. 323–24; Greenslade, p. 499, 736, n. 97.

Television personality Piers Morgan, a former editor of the Daily Mirror and of The Sun{{'}}s "Bizarre" pop column, has said that during the late 1980s, at Kelvin MacKenzie's behest, he was ordered to speculate on the sexuality of male pop stars for a feature headlined "The Poofs of Pop".{{cite news |last=Morgan |first=Piers |author-link=Piers Morgan|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1498649/No-stereotypes-were-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-film.html?pageNum=2 |title=No stereotypes were harmed in the making of this film |work=The Daily Telegraph|date=17 September 2005 |access-date=19 January 2009}} He also recalls MacKenzie headlining a January 1989 story about the first same-sex kiss on the BBC television soap opera EastEnders as "EastBenders", describing the kiss between Colin Russell and Guido Smith as "a homosexual love scene between yuppie poofs ... when millions of children were watching".{{cite news |last1=Jones |first1=Owen |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/one-day-coming-out-wont-be-a-thing--and-the-reaction-to-tom-daleys-announcement-shows-were-getting-there-8977908.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/one-day-coming-out-wont-be-a-thing--and-the-reaction-to-tom-daleys-announcement-shows-were-getting-there-8977908.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=One day 'coming out' won't be a thing – and the reaction to Tom Daley's announcement shows we're getting there|work=The Independent|date=2 December 2013|access-date=1 February 2014}} In 1990, the Press Council adjudicated against The Sun and columnist Garry Bushell for their use of derogatory terminology about gay people.{{cite book|first=Peter |last=Beherrell |chapter=AIDS and the British Press|editor-first= John |editor-last=Eldridge|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjiIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA219 |title=Getting the Message: News, Truth, and Power|publisher=Routledge|date=1993|page=219|isbn=9781134895830 }}

The Sun responded to the health crisis on 8 May 1983 with the headline: "US Gay Blood Plague Kills Three in Britain".Julian Petley "Positive and Negative Images" in James Curran (et al., eds) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ocdFS3CJKMQC&pg=PA160 Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left], Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003, p. 160. In May 1987, the publication offered gay men free one-way airline tickets to Norway to leave Britain for good: "Fly Away Gays – And We Will Pay" was the paper's headline.{{cite book|first=Simon|last=Watney|url=https://archive.org/details/policingdesirepo00watn/page/147|title=Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS, And the Media|publisher=University of Minnesota|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota|isbn=978-0816630257|date=1996|page=147}} Gay Church of England clergymen were described in one headline in November 1987 as "Pulpit poofs".{{cite book|first=Terry|last=Sanderson|title=Mediawatch: The Treatment of Male and Female Homosexuality in the British Media|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|location=London, England|date=1995|isbn=978-0304331864|page=179}}

On 17 November 1989, The Sun headlined a page 2 news story titled "STRAIGHT SEX CANNOT GIVE YOU AIDS – OFFICIAL". The Sun favourably cited the opinions of Lord Kilbracken, a member of the All Parliamentary Group on AIDS, who had said that only one person out of the 2,372 individuals with HIV/AIDS mentioned in a specific Department of Health report was not a member of a "high risk group", such as homosexuals and recreational drug users. The Sun also ran an editorial arguing that "At last the truth can be told ... the risk of catching AIDS if you are heterosexual is 'statistically invisible'. In other words, impossible. So now we know – everything else is homosexual propaganda". Although many other British press services covered Lord Kilbracken's public comments, none of them echoed the argument in the Sun, and none of them presented Lord Kilbracken's ideas without context or criticism.{{cite book|first=John |last=Eldridge|title=Getting the Message: News, Truth, and Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bjiIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA198|date=2 September 2003|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-89583-0|pages=196–226}}

Critics stated that both The Sun and Lord Kilbracken cherry-picked the results from one specific study while ignoring other data on HIV infection and not just AIDS infection, which the critics viewed as unethical politicisation of a medical issue. Lord Kilbracken himself criticised The Sun{{'s}} editorial and the headline of its news story, stating that, while he thought that gay people were more at risk of developing AIDS, it was still wrong to imply that no one else could catch the disease. The Sun{{'}}s article and editorial were reported to the Press Council and an adjudication ruled that they were "misleading in its interpretation... and the headline... was a gross distortion of the statistical information supplied by the Minister".{{cite book |last=Eldridge |year=2003 |title=Getting the Message |publisher= Routledge|pages=198–224 |isbn= 1134895828|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNGIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA221}} The Sun later published an apology, which was run on Page 28. David Randall argued in the textbook The Universal Journalist that the story in The Sun was one of the worst cases of journalistic malpractice in recent history, putting its own readers in harm's way.{{cite book|isbn=978-0-7453-1641-3|title=The universal journalist|first=David|last=Randall|page=135|year=2000|publisher=Pluto Press}}

{{Main|Coverage of the Hillsborough disaster by The Sun}}

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At the end of the decade, The Sun{{'}}s coverage of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster, in which 97 people died as a result of their injuries, proved to be, as the paper later admitted, the "most terrible" blunder in its history."The Sun Says" (editorial), The Sun, 7 July 2004. Three days after the accident, editor Kelvin MacKenzie published an editorial which accused people of "scapegoating" the police, saying that the disaster occurred "because thousands of fans, many without tickets tried to get into the ground just before kick-off – either by forcing their way in or by blackmailing the police into opening the gates".{{cite web|url=https://www.thejusticegap.com/hillsborough-telling-truth-scum/|title=Hillsborough: telling the truth about the scum|work=The Justice Gap|last=Horrie|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Horrie|date=7 November 2014|access-date=20 August 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/hillsborough-the-sun-truth-headline-coronavirus-government-boris-johnson-a9472861.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/hillsborough-the-sun-truth-headline-coronavirus-government-boris-johnson-a9472861.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title='The Truth', Hillsborough, the betrayal of a nation and the catalyst for letting the powerful off the hook|work=The Independent|last=Evans|first=Tony|date=19 April 2020|access-date=20 August 2021}} The next day, under a front-page headline "The Truth", the paper falsely accused Liverpool fans of theft and of urinating on and attacking police officers and emergency services. Conservative Member of Parliament Irvine Patnick was quoted as claiming that a group of Liverpool supporters told a police officer that they would have sex with a dead female victim.

MacKenzie maintained for years that his "only mistake was to believe a Tory MP". In 1993, he told a House of Commons committee, "I regret Hillsborough. It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said", but privately said at a 2006 dinner that he had only apologised under the instruction of Rupert Murdoch, believing: "all I did wrong was tell the truth ... I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now". On Question Time the next year, MacKenzie publicly repeated the claims he said at the dinner; he said that he believed some of the material they published in The Sun but was not sure about all of it.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/apr/18/hillsborough-anniversary-sun-newspaper|title=Hillsborough: 20 years on, Liverpool has still not forgiven the newspaper it calls 'The Scum'|work=The Guardian|last1=Gibson|first1=Owen|last2=Carter|first2=Helen|date=18 April 2009|access-date=20 August 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2007/jan/12/broadcasting.pressandpublishing|title=MacKenzie speaks out on Hillsborough comments|work=The Guardian|last=Conlan|first=Tara|date=12 January 2007|access-date=20 August 2021}} He said in 2012, "Twenty-three years ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium{{nbsp}}... these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters{{nbsp}}... I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong". A member of the Hillsborough Families Support Group responded "too little, too late".{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-19575411|title=Hillsborough: Former Sun editor apologises to Liverpool|publisher=BBC|date=12 September 2012|access-date=20 August 2021}}

Widespread boycotts of the newspaper throughout Merseyside followed immediately and continue to this day. Boycotts include both customers refusing to purchase it, and retailers refusing to stock it.{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/nz8ez8/liverpool-vs-the-sun-how-the-city-rid-itself-of-the-uks-biggest-paper|title=Liverpool Vs The Sun: How the City Rid Itself of the UK's Biggest Paper|work=Vice|last=Brett|first=Davey|date=9 May 2017|access-date=20 August 2021}}{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-17113382|title=Liverpool's 23-year boycott of The Sun newspaper|publisher=BBC|date=24 February 2012|access-date=20 August 2021}} The Financial Times reported in 2019 that Merseyside sales were estimated to drop from 55,000 per day to 12,000 per day, an 80% decrease.{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/ffdb6e8c-c5c8-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9|title=Sun boycott reduced Euroscepticism on Merseyside, study shows|work=Financial Times|last=Bounds|first=Andy|date=26 August 2019|access-date=20 August 2021}} Chris Horrie estimated in 2014 that the tabloid's owners had lost £15{{nbsp}}million per month since the disaster, in 1989 prices. Sales also declined to a lesser degree in neighbouring parts of Cheshire and Lancashire.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/may/31/sun.pressandpublishing |title=Sun's cup coverage doubles sales in Liverpool |work=The Guardian |date=31 May 2005 |access-date=19 January 2009 |first=Stephen |last=Brook}} It was revealed in a documentary called Alexei Sayle's Liverpool, aired in September 2008, that many Liverpudlians will not even take the newspaper for free, or will burn or tear it up.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00c3qss |title=Alexei Sayle's Liverpool |publisher=BBC Two|date=24 September 2008|access-date=13 August 2010}} The paper is referred to by Liverpudlians as The Scum, with campaigners believing it limited their fight for justice.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2009/apr/18/hillsborough-anniversary-sun-newspaper|title=Hillsborough: 20 years on, Liverpool has still not forgiven the newspaper it calls 'The Scum' |work=The Guardian|first1=Owen|last1=Gibson|first2=Helen|last2=Carter|date=18 April 2009|access-date=30 April 2016}}

The Sun was not the only newspaper to print similar stories about the alleged drunkenness and violence among Liverpool fans at the Hillsborough disaster. The Daily Star and Daily Mail were among the newspaper who printed claims that hooliganism was a major factor in the tragedy;{{cn|date=July 2023}} however, other papers' stories were presented less prominently.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-35473732|title=Five Hillsborough myths dispelled by inquests jury|publisher=BBC|last=Turner|first=Richard|date=28 April 2016|access-date=20 August 2021}} Alex Hern of the New Statesman noted that the Daily Express{{'}}s headline on the day of "The Truth" reported claims about fans as accusations by the police, rather than fact.{{cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/kelvin-mackenzie-why-sun-picked-out-over-hillsborough|title=Kelvin MacKenzie, this is why the Sun is "picked out" over Hillsborough|work=New Statesman|last=Hern|first=Alex|date=26 September 2012|access-date=20 August 2021}}

In April 1992, on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, The Sun printed an exclusive interview with Liverpool manager Graeme Souness as he celebrated Liverpool's FA Cup semi-final win over Portsmouth while recovering in hospital from heart surgery. Souness came under fire from Liverpool fans for conducting an interview with the newspaper, who made continued calls for him to be sacked. Liverpool's victory in the FA Cup final a month later did little to lessen the anger towards Souness, who was already under fire for Liverpool's inconsistent league form, although he did not resign from his position until January 1994.{{cn|date=July 2023}}

On 7 July 2004, in response to verbal attacks in Liverpool on Wayne Rooney, just before his transfer from Everton to Manchester United, who had sold his life story to The Sun, the paper devoted a full-page editorial to an apology for the "awful error" of its Hillsborough coverage and argued that Rooney (who was only three years old at the time of Hillsborough) should not be punished for its "past sins". In January 2005, The Sun{{'s}} managing editor Graham Dudman admitting the Hillsborough coverage was "the worst mistake in our history", added: "What we did was a terrible mistake. It was a terrible, insensitive, horrible article, with a dreadful headline; but what we'd also say is: we have apologised for it, and the entire senior team here now is completely different from the team that put the paper out in 1989".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/jan/31/sun.mondaymediasection |title=No end to the Sun's sorry tale|work=The Guardian |location=UK |date= 31 January 2005|access-date=19 January 2009| first=Mark | last=Lupton}}

In May 2006, Kelvin MacKenzie, the Sun editor at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, returned to the paper as a columnist. Furthermore, on 11 January 2007, MacKenzie stated, as a panellist on BBC1's Question Time, that the apology he made about the coverage was a hollow one that had been forced upon him by Rupert Murdoch. MacKenzie further claimed he was not sorry "for telling the truth" but he admitted that he did not know whether some Liverpool fans urinated on the police or robbed victims.{{cite news|title =No apology for Hillsborough story|work=BBC News|date= 12 January 2007|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6254767.stm|access-date =23 February 2007}}

On 12 September 2012, following the publication of the official report into the disaster using previously withheld Government papers which officially exonerated the Liverpool fans present, MacKenzie issued the following statement:

{{Blockquote|Today I offer my profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool for that headline. I too was totally misled. Twenty three years ago I was handed a piece of copy from a reputable news agency in Sheffield [White's] in which a senior police officer and a senior local MP [Sheffield Hallam MP Irvine Patnick] were making serious allegations against fans in the stadium. I had absolutely no reason to believe that these authority figures would lie and deceive over such a disaster. As the Prime Minister has made clear these allegations were wholly untrue and were part of a concerted plot by police officers to discredit the supporters thereby shifting the blame for the tragedy from themselves. It has taken more than two decades, 400,000 documents and a two-year inquiry to discover to my horror that it would have been far more accurate had I written the headline "The Lies" rather than "The Truth". I published in good faith and I am sorry that it was so wrong.}}

Trevor Hicks, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, rejected Mr MacKenzie's apology as "too little, too late", calling him "lowlife, clever lowlife, but lowlife".{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9538782/Hillsborough-Kelvin-MacKenzie-offers-profuse-apologies-to-the-people-of-Liverpool.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9538782/Hillsborough-Kelvin-MacKenzie-offers-profuse-apologies-to-the-people-of-Liverpool.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Hillsborough: Kelvin MacKenzie offers 'profuse apologies to the people of Liverpool' |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=31 May 2011 |access-date=14 September 2012}}{{cbignore}} Following the publication of the report The Sun apologised on its front page, under the headline "The Real Truth". With the newspaper's editor at the time, Dominic Mohan, adding underneath:{{Blockquote|It's a version of events that 23 years ago The Sun went along with and for that we're deeply ashamed and profoundly sorry. We've co-operated fully with The Hillsborough Independent Panel and will publish reports of their findings in tomorrow's newspaper. We will also reflect our deep sense of shame.{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9540181/Hillsborough-The-Sun-profoundly-sorry-over-false-fan-conduct-reports.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914043449/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9540181/Hillsborough-The-Sun-profoundly-sorry-over-false-fan-conduct-reports.html |archive-date=2012-09-14 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Dominic Mohan has offered "profound" apologies|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=13 September 2012 |access-date=22 May 2014}}}}

The newspaper was banned by Everton F.C. in April 2017 after The Sun published a column by former editor Kelvin MacKenzie the day before the 28th anniversary of the disaster which included a passage about footballer Ross Barkley that was considered "appalling and indefensible" and included a racist epithet and insults against the people of Liverpool.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39608149|title=Everton ban the Sun after Ross Barkley article|publisher=BBC Sport|date=15 April 2017|access-date=15 April 2017}} Access to the club grounds and facilities for Sun reporters were blocked. The Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson described the article as "disgrace" and a "slur" on the city.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-39606793|title=Liverpool mayor: Sack Kelvin MacKenzie over Barkley article|work=BBC News|date=15 April 2017|access-date=15 April 2017}} MacKenzie was suspended as a contributor to the paper on the day of publication.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/apr/15/everton-join-liverpool-in-banning-sun-journalists-over-coverage|title=Everton join Liverpool in banning Sun journalists over coverage|work=The Guardian|date=15 April 2017|access-date=15 April 2017}}

File:It%27s_The_Sun_Wot_Won_It.jpg": front page of The Sun on 11 April 1992 after the Conservatives won the election. The headline is regularly mentioned in debates about media influence in British politics.{{cite news|last1=Dowell|first1=Ben|title=Rupert Murdoch: 'Sun wot won it' headline was tasteless and wrong|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/apr/25/rupert-murdoch-sun-wot-won-it-tasteless|access-date=20 September 2017|work=The Guardian|date=25 April 2012}}]]

The Sun remained loyal to Thatcher until her resignation in November 1990,"Maggie is the Tories' Only Hope", The Sun, 29 October 1990, cited in Roy Greenslade Press Gang: How Newspaper's Make Profits From Propanganda, London: Macmillan, p. 548, 740, n. 59. despite the party's fall in popularity over the previous year following the introduction of the poll tax (officially known as the Community Charge). This change to the way local government is funded was vociferously supported by the newspaper, despite widespread opposition, (some from Conservative MPs), which is seen as having contributed to Thatcher's own downfall. The tax was quickly repealed by her successor John Major, whom The Sun initially supported enthusiastically,"Major By a Mile", "Why We Say It Must Be Major", The Sun, 26 November 1990, p.1, 6, cited by Roy Greenslade Press Gang: How Newspaper's Make Profits From Propanganda, London: Macmillan, p. 550, 741, n. 78. believing the former Chancellor of the Exchequer was a radical Thatcherite. On the day of the general election of 9 April 1992, its front-page headline, encapsulating its antipathy towards the Labour leader Neil Kinnock, read: "If Kinnock wins today, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights". Two days later, The Sun was so convinced its front page had swung a close election for the Conservatives it declared: "It's The Sun Wot Won It". The Sun led with a headline "Now we've all been screwed by the cabinet" with a reference to Black Wednesday on 17 September 1992, and the exposure a few months earlier of an extra-marital affair in which Cabinet Minister David Mellor was involved.The Sun, 17 September 1992.

On 14 October 1992, The Sun attacked Michael Heseltine for the mass coal mine closures. Despite its initial opposition to the closures, until 1997, the newspaper repeatedly called for the implementation of further Thatcherite policies, such as Royal Mail privatisation,The Sun, 3 November 1994.{{Verify source|date=June 2011}} and social security cutbacks, with leaders such as "Peter Lilley is right, we can't carry on like this".The Sun, July 1993.{{Verify source|date=June 2011}} The paper showed hostility to the European Union (EU) and approval of public spending cuts, tax cuts, and promotion of right-wing ministers to the cabinet, with leaders such as "More of the Redwood, not Deadwood".The Sun, 1994. The Sun criticised Labour leader John Smith in February 1994, for saying that more British troops should be sent to Bosnia. The Sun{{'s}} comment was that "The only serious radicals in British politics these days are the likes of Redwood, Lilley and Portillo".The Sun, February 1994.{{Verify source|date=June 2011}} It also gradually expressed its bitter disillusionment with John Major as Prime Minister, with headlines such as "What fools we were to back John Major".The Sun, 14 January 1994.

Between 1994 and 1996, The Sun{{'s}} circulation peaked. Its highest average sale was in the week ending 16 July 1994, when the daily figure was 4,305,957. The highest ever one-day sale was on 18 November 1995 (4,889,118), although the cover price had been cut to 10p. The highest ever one-day sale at full price was on 30 March 1996 (4,783,359).News International Circulation Reports Archive. On 22 January 1997, The Sun accused the shadow chancellor Gordon Brown of stealing the Conservatives' ideas by declaring, "If all he is offering is Conservative financial restraint, why not vote for the real thing?"The Sun, 22 January 1997. and called the planned windfall tax, which was later imposed by the Labour government, "wrongheaded".The Sun, 15 February 1997. In February 1997 it told Sir Edward Heath MP to stand down for supporting a national minimum wage.The Sun, 26 February 1997.

The Sun switched support to the Labour party on 18 March 1997, six weeks before the general election victory which saw the New Labour leader Tony Blair become Prime Minister with a large parliamentary majority, despite the paper having attacked Blair and New Labour up to a month earlier. Its front-page headline read THE SUN BACKS BLAIR and its front-page editorial made clear that while it still opposed some New Labour policies, such as the minimum wage and devolution, it believed Blair to be "the breath of fresh air this great country needs".The Sun, 18 March 1997. It said that John Major's Conservatives were "tired, divided and rudderless". Blair, who had radically altered his party's image and policies, noting the influence the paper could have over its readers' political thinking, had courted it and Murdoch for some time by granting exclusive interviews and writing columns. In exchange for Rupert Murdoch's support, Blair agreed not to join the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which John Major had withdrawn the country from in September 1992 after barely two years.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/tor8v/?focuswin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090111015633/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/pip/tor8v/?focuswin |archive-date=11 January 2009 |title=A Very Special Relationship |publisher=BBC Radio 4 |date=5 February 2007 |access-date=19 January 2009 }} Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson was "outed" by Matthew Parris (a former Sun columnist) on BBC TV's Newsnight in November 1998. Misjudging public response, The Sun{{'s}} editor David Yelland demanded to know in a front-page editorial whether Britain was governed by a "gay mafia" of a "closed world of men with a mutual self-interest".{{Cite news |last=Chancellor |first=Alexander |date=1998-11-11 |title=Murdoch and Gays |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1998/11/murdoch-and-gays.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=Slate |language=en-US |issn=1091-2339}} Three days later, the paper apologised in another editorial which said The Sun would never again reveal a person's sexuality unless it could be defended on the grounds of "overwhelming public interest".{{Cite news |last=Price |first=Lance |date=2008-10-12 |title=Mandelson's back - and so is media homophobia. Why? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/oct/13/mandelson-gayrights |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

In 2003, the paper was accused of racism by the government over its criticisms of what it perceived as the "open door" policy on immigration. The attacks came from the Prime Minister's press spokesman Alastair Campbell and the Home Secretary David Blunkett (later a Sun columnist). The paper rebutted the claim, believing that it was not racist to suggest that a "tide" of unchecked illegal immigrants was increasing the risk of terrorist attacks and infectious diseases. It did not help its argument by publishing a front-page story on 4 July 2003, under the headline "Swan Bake", which claimed that asylum seekers were slaughtering and eating swans. It later proved to have no basis in fact. Subsequently, The Sun published a follow-up, headlined "Now they're after our fish!". Following a Press Complaints Commission adjudication a "clarification" was eventually printed, on page 41.{{cite web |url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=24624§ioncode=1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081211123001/http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storyCode=24624§ioncode=1 |archive-date=11 December 2008 |title=Sun accused of Swan Bake 'myth-making' |work=Press Gazette |date=19 December 2003 |access-date=19 January 2009 }} In 2005, The Sun published photographs of Prince Harry sporting a Nazi costume to a fancy dress party. The photographs caused outrage across the world and Clarence House was forced to issue a statement in response apologising for any offence or embarrassment caused.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4170083.stm "Harry says sorry for Nazi costume"], BBC News, 13 January 2005.

Despite being a persistent critic of some of the government's policies, the paper supported Labour in both subsequent elections the party won. For the 2005 general election, The Sun backed Blair and Labour for a third consecutive election win and vowed to give him "one last chance" to fulfil his promises, despite berating him for several weaknesses including a failure to control immigration. However, it did speak of its hope that the Conservatives (led by Michael Howard) would one day be fit for a return to government. This election (Blair had declared it would be his last as prime minister) resulted in Labour's third successive win but with a much reduced majority.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4519863.stm "Blair secures historic third term"], BBC News, 6 May 2005.

File:Potters Road shops, Barnet (cropped).JPG

When Rebekah Wade (now Brooks) became editor in 2003, it was thought Page 3 might be dropped. Wade had tried to persuade David Yelland, her immediate predecessors in the job, to scrap the feature, but a model who shared her first name was used on her first day in the post.{{cite news|first=Ciar|last= Byrne|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jan/15/pressandpublishing.politicsandthemedia |title=Wade: I'm no Blair poodle|newspaper=The Guardian|date= 15 January 2003}} On 22 September 2003, the newspaper appeared to misjudge the public mood surrounding mental health, as well as its affection for former world heavyweight champion boxer Frank Bruno, who had been admitted to hospital, when the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" appeared on the front page of early editions. The adverse reaction, once the paper had hit the streets on the evening of 21 September, led to the headline being changed for the paper's second edition to the more sympathetic "Sad Bruno in Mental Home".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/sep/23/pressandpublishing.mentalhealth|title=Sun on the ropes over 'Bonkers Bruno' story|date=23 September 2003|work=The Guardian|publisher=Guardian News and Media|access-date=19 October 2009|first=Owen | last=Gibson}}

The Sun has been openly antagonistic towards other European nations, particularly the French and Germans. During the 1980s and 1990s, the nationalities were routinely described in copy and headlines as "frogs", "krauts" or "hun". As the paper is opposed to the EU, it has referred to foreign leaders who it deemed hostile to the UK in unflattering terms. Former President Jacques Chirac of France, for instance, was branded "le Worm". An unflattering picture of German chancellor Angela Merkel, taken from the rear, bore the headline "I'm Big in the Bumdestag" (17 April 2006).{{Cite web |date=18 April 2006 |title=Merkel's Exposed Derrière Makes Headline News in Britain |url=https://www.dw.com/en/merkels-exposed-derri%C3%A8re-makes-headline-news-in-britain/a-1973479 |access-date=6 July 2024 |website=DW News}}

Although The Sun was outspoken against the racism directed at the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty on the television reality show Celebrity Big Brother during 2007, the paper captioned a picture on its website, from a Bollywood-themed pop video by Hilary Duff, "Hilary PoppaDuff",{{cite web|url=http://www.holymoly.co.uk/news/28/the-sun-online-catches-the-jade-goody-bug-1134.html |title=The Sun online catches the Jade Goody bug |publisher=Holy Moly! |access-date=19 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905013642/http://www.holymoly.co.uk/news/28/the-sun-online-catches-the-jade-goody-bug-1134.html |archive-date=5 September 2008 }} a very similar insult to that directed at Shetty. On 7 January 2009, The Sun ran an exclusive front-page story claiming that participants in a discussion on Ummah.com, a British Muslim internet forum, had made a "hate hit list" of British Jews to be targeted by extremists over the Gaza War. It was claimed that "Those listed [on the forum] should treat it very seriously. Expect a hate campaign and intimidation by 20 or 30 thugs". The UK magazine Private Eye claimed that Glen Jenvey, a man quoted by The Sun as a terrorism expert, who had been posting to the forum under the pseudonym "Abuislam", was the only forum member promoting a hate campaign and that other members promoted peaceful advocacy, such as writing "polite letters". The story has since been removed from The Sun{{'s}} website following complaints to the UK's Press Complaints Commission.{{Cite news | date = 21 January 2009 | title = How Extremism Works | periodical = Private Eye | place = London | publisher=Pressdram Ltd | issue = 1228 | page = 4 }}

On 9 December 2010, The Sun published a front-page story claiming that the terrorist group Al-Qaeda had threatened a terrorist attack on Granada Television in Manchester to disrupt the episode of the soap opera Coronation Street that was to be transmitted live that evening. The paper cited unnamed sources claiming that "cops are throwing a ring of steel around tonight's live episode of Coronation Street over fears it has been targeted by Al-Qaeda".The Sun, 9 December 2010, News Corporation Later that morning, however, Greater Manchester Police categorically denied having "been made aware of any threat from Al-Qaeda or any other proscribed organisation".{{cite news |url=http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/8728644.Police_dismiss_report_of_Al_Qaeda_threat_to_Coronation_Street/ |title=Police dismiss report of Al Qaeda threat to Coronation Street |work=This is Lancashire |date=9 December 2010 |access-date=3 January 2011}} The Sun published a small correction on 28 December, admitting "that while cast and crew were subject to full body searches, there was no specific threat from Al-Qaeda as we reported".{{cite news |title=Coronation Street |url=http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3320002/Coronation-Street.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110121142616/http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3320002/Coronation-Street.html |archive-date=21 January 2011 |work=The Sun |date=28 December 2010 |access-date=3 January 2011}} The apology had been negotiated by the Press Complaints Commission.{{cite news |first=Roy |last=Greenslade |author-link=Roy Greenslade |work=The Guardian |title=The Sun admits publishing false story |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/dec/29/sun-coronation-street |date=29 December 2010|access-date=3 January 2011}} For the day following the 2011 Norway attacks, The Sun produced an early edition blaming the massacre on al-Qaeda on its front page.{{cite news|last1=Brooker|first1=Charlie|title=The news coverage of the Norway mass-killings was fact-free conjecture|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/jul/24/charlie-brooker-norway-mass-killings|access-date=4 July 2017|work=The Guardian|date=24 July 2011}} Later the perpetrator was revealed to be Anders Behring Breivik, a far-right terrorist from Norway.{{cite news|last=Dearden|first=Lizzie|title=Anders Breivik: Right-wing extremist who killed 77 people in Norway massacre wins part of human rights case|work=The Independent|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anders-breivik-right-wing-extremist-who-killed-77-in-utoya-norway-massacre-wins-lawsuit-against-a6992756.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/anders-breivik-right-wing-extremist-who-killed-77-in-utoya-norway-massacre-wins-lawsuit-against-a6992756.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=4 July 2017}}

In January 2008, the Wapping presses printed The Sun for the last time and London printing was transferred to Waltham Cross in the Borough of Broxbourne in Hertfordshire,{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jan/25/sun.newsinternational1 |title=Sun sets on Wapping printworks|first=Stephen|last=Brook|newspaper=The Guardian|date= 25 January 2008}} where News International had built what is claimed to be the largest printing centre in Europe with 12 presses. The site also produces The Times and Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, Wall Street Journal Europe (also a Murdoch newspaper), the London Evening Standard, and local papers. Northern printing had earlier been switched to a new plant at Knowsley on Merseyside and the Scottish Sun to another new plant at Motherwell near Glasgow. The three print centres represent a £600 million investment by NI and allowed all the titles to be produced with every page in full colour from 2008. The Waltham Cross plant is capable of producing one million copies an hour of a 120-page tabloid newspaper. In early 2011, the company vacated the Wapping complex, which in November 2011 was put on the market for a reputed £200 million. In May 2012, it was reported the Wapping site had been sold for £150 million to St George, part of Berkeley Group Holdings.{{cite web|title=News International sells Wapping site for £150m|first=Josh|last=Halliday|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/may/30/news-international-sells-wapping-site-150m|date=30 May 2012|access-date=27 December 2013|work=The Guardian}}

{{Further|Rupert Murdoch#Political activities}}

Politically, the paper's stance was less clear under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Blair in June 2007. Its editorials were critical of many of Brown's policies and often more supportive of those of Conservative leader David Cameron. Rupert Murdoch, head of The Sun{{'}}s parent company News Corporation, speaking at a 2007 meeting with the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications, which was investigating media ownership and the news, said that he acts as a "traditional proprietor". This means he exercises editorial control on major issues such as which political party to back in a general election or which policy to adopt on Europe.{{cite conference|title=Minute of the meeting with Mr Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News Corporation |book-title=Inquiry into Media Ownership and the News |pages=10 |publisher=House of Commons Select Committee on Communications |date=17 September 2007 |url=http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/us.doc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201082014/http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/us.doc |archive-date=1 December 2007 }}

With "Broken Britain" controversies on issues like crime, immigration and public service failures in the news, on 30 September 2009, following Brown's speech at the Labour Party Conference, The Sun, under the banner "Labour's Lost It", announced that it no longer supported the Labour Party:{{cite web|url=http://www.supanet.com/business--money/which-political-parties-do-the-newspapers-support--25923p1.html|title=Which political parties do the newspapers support?|first=Dave|last=Lancaster|website= Supanet|date=1 October 2009}} "The Sun believes – and prays – that the Conservative leadership can put the great back into Great Britain".{{cite news|last1=Greenslade|first1=Roy|title=The Sun's political switch is no surprise|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2009/sep/29/sun-conservatives|access-date=4 July 2017|work=The Guardian|date=29 September 2009}}

That day at the Labour Party Conference, union leader Tony Woodley responded by ripping up a copy of that edition of The Sun, remarking as he did so in reference to the newspaper's Hillsborough Disaster controversy: "In Liverpool we learnt a long time ago what to do".{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8282535.stm?ls |title=Harman turns fire on Sun decision |work=BBC News |date=30 September 2009|access-date=2 May 2010}} One attack on Gordon Brown backfired at around this time. After criticising him for misspelling a dead soldier's mother's name, The Sun was then forced to apologise for misspelling the same name on their website.{{Cite news |last=Sweney |first=Mark |date=2009-11-13 |title=Sun apologises for misspelling name of soldier's mother on website |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/13/sun-apologises-misspelling-soldier |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The Scottish Sun did not back either Labour or the Conservatives, with its editorial stating it was "yet to be convinced" by the Conservative opposition, and editor David Dinsmore asking in an interview "what is David Cameron going to do for Scotland?".{{cite news|work=The Guardian |location=UK |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/sep/30/scottish-sun-tories|title=Scottish Sun stops short of backing Tories|date=30 September 2009| first=John | last=Plunkett | access-date=25 May 2010}}{{cite news|work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8282021.stm|title=Scottish Sun not backing Tories|date=30 September 2009}} Dinsmore also stated that the paper supported the Union, and was unlikely to back the Scottish National Party. During the campaign for the 2010 UK general election, The Independent ran ads declaring that "Rupert Murdoch won't decide this election – you will". In response, James Murdoch and Rebekah Wade "appeared unannounced and uninvited on the editorial floor" of the Independent, and had an energetic conversation with its editor Simon Kelner.{{Cite news |last=White |first=Michael |date=2010-04-22 |title=Murdoch-Wade posse crash Independent's office – that's pretty uncool, isn't it? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2010/apr/22/murdoch-wade-crash-independent |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Several days later the Independent reported The Sun{{'s}} failure to report its own YouGov poll result which said that "if people thought Mr Clegg's party had a significant chance of winning the election" the Liberal Democrats would win 49% of the vote, and with it a landslide majority.{{Cite web |date=2010-04-22 |title='Sun' censored poll that showed support for Lib Dems |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/sun-censored-poll-that-showed-support-for-lib-dems-1951940.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Independent |language=en}}

On election day (6 May 2010), The Sun urged its readers to vote for David Cameron's "modern and positive" Conservatives to save Britain from "disaster" which the paper thought the country would face if the Labour government was re-elected. The election ended in the first hung parliament after an election for 36 years, with the Tories gaining the most seats and votes but being 20 seats short of an overall majority. They finally came to power on 11 May when Gordon Brown stepped down as prime minister, paving the way for David Cameron to become prime minister by forming a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8676607.stm |work=BBC News | title=Cameron and Clegg: We are united | date=12 May 2010}} On 24 August 2012, The Sun sparked a controversy when it published photos of Prince Harry taken in a private situation with friends while on holiday in Las Vegas, USA. While other British newspapers had not published the photos in deference to the privacy of members of the Royal Family, editorial staff of The Sun claimed it was a move to test Britain's perception of freedom of the press. In the photos, which were published on the Internet worldwide, Prince Harry was naked.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-harry/9496215/Prince-Harry-The-Sun-defies-Royal-Family-to-print-naked-pictures.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-harry/9496215/Prince-Harry-The-Sun-defies-Royal-Family-to-print-naked-pictures.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Prince Harry: The Sun defies Royal Family to print naked pictures|date=24 August 2012|work=The Telegraph|access-date=24 August 2012}}{{cbignore}}

{{organize section|date=June 2020}}

File:The-Sun-on-Sunday-cover-specimen.jpg

Following the News of the World phone hacking affair that led to the closure of that paper on 10 July 2011, there was speculation that News International would launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World.{{cite news|url=http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100095915/the-news-of-the-world-is-sacrificed-how-long-before-we-have-the-sun-on-sunday/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709151806/http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100095915/the-news-of-the-world-is-sacrificed-how-long-before-we-have-the-sun-on-sunday/|archive-date=9 July 2011|title=The News of the World is sacrificed – how long before we have The Sun on Sunday?|work=The Daily Telegraph |location=UK |date=7 July 2011|access-date=7 July 2011}} The internet URLs sunonsunday.co.uk, thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were registered on 5 July 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited.{{cite web|url=http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/sectors/media/sun-on-sunday-set-for-launch-following-notw-closure/3028241.article|title=Sun on Sunday set for launch following NOTW closure|work=Marketing Week|date=8 July 2011|access-date=11 July 2011}} A similar URL sunonsunday.com is not affiliated, having been registered in Italy on 24 September 2007. On 18 July 2011, the LulzSec group hacked The Sun{{'s}} website, where they posted a fake news story of Rupert Murdoch's death before redirecting the website to their Twitter page. The group also targeted the website of The Times.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/jul/18/sun-website-hacked-lulzsec|title=Sun website hacked by LulzSec |last1=Arthur|first1=Charles|first2=Hannah|last2=Godfrey|first3=Ben|last3=Quinn|date=18 July 2011|work=The Guardian|access-date=19 July 2011}}

A reporter working for The Sun was arrested and taken to a south-west London police station on 4 November 2011. The man was the sixth person to be arrested in the UK under the News International related legal probe, Operation Elveden.{{Cite web |date=2011-11-04 |title='Sun journalist' arrested over 'payments to police' |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8869598/Sun-journalist-arrested-over-payments-to-police.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}} In January 2012, two current and two former employees were arrested. As of 18 January 2013, 22 Sun journalists had been arrested, including their crime reporter Anthony France. On 28 January 2012, police arrested four current and former staff members of The Sun,{{cite news|last=Barrett |first=David |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9046405/Phone-hacking-four-Sun-journalists-arrested.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9046405/Phone-hacking-four-Sun-journalists-arrested.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Phone hacking: four Sun journalists arrested |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=28 January 2012 |access-date=26 February 2012}}{{cbignore}} as part of a probe in which journalists paid police officers for information; a police officer was also arrested in the probe. The Sun staffers arrested were crime editor Mike Sullivan, head of news Chris Pharo, former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, and former managing editor Graham Dudman, who since became a columnist and media writer. All five arrested were held on suspicion of corruption. Police also searched the offices of News International, the publishers of The Sun, as part of a continuing investigation into the News of the World scandal.{{cite web|url=http://www.bluestatepress.com/politics4/news_019.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121211114327/http://www.bluestatepress.com/politics4/news_019.htm |archive-date=11 December 2012 |title=Reuters, via The Blue State Press, UK police arrest Murdoch tabloid staff, raid offices |publisher=Bluestatepress.com |date=28 January 2011 |access-date=26 February 2012}}{{cite news|last=Kelley |first=Trista |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-28/news-corp-journalists-arrested-as-u-k-bribery-probe-spreads-to-the-sun.html |title="News Corp. Journalists Arrested as U.K. Bribery Probe Spreads to The Sun", 28 January 2012 |publisher=Bloomberg |date=29 January 2012 |access-date=26 February 2012}}

On 11 February 2012, five senior journalists at The Sun were arrested, including the deputy editor, as part of Operation Elveden (the investigation into payments to UK public servants).{{cite news|first=David |last=Batty |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/feb/11/sun-journalists-arrested |title=Senior Sun journalists arrested in police payments probe | The Guardian |work=The Guardian |date=11 February 2012 |access-date=26 February 2012}} Coinciding with a visit to The Sun newsroom on 17 February 2012, Murdoch announced via an email that the arrested journalists, who had been suspended, would return to work as nothing had been proved against them. He also told staff in the email that The Sun on Sunday would be launched "very shortly"; it was launched on 26 February 2012.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17092863|title=Sun on Sunday to launch next week|work=BBC News|date=19 February 2012|access-date=19 February 2012}} On 27 February 2012, the day after the debut of The Sun on Sunday, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers told the Leveson Inquiry that police were investigating a "network of corrupt officials" as part of their inquiries into phone hacking and police corruption. She said evidence suggested a "culture of illegal payments" at The Sun authorised at a senior level.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17173438|title=Leveson Inquiry: Evidence suggests 'network of corrupt officials'|work=BBC News|date=27 February 2012|access-date=27 February 2012}}

On 12 and 13 June 2014, to tie in with the beginning of the 2014 World Cup football tournament, a free special issue of The Sun was distributed by the Royal Mail to 22 million homes in England.Roy Greenslade [https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jun/11/sun-world-cup-2014 "The Sun marks the World Cup by giving away 22m papers to English homes"], (Greenslade blog) theguardian.com, 11 June 2014 The promotion, which did not include a Page 3 topless model, was announced in mid-May and was believed to be the first such freesheet issued by a UK national newspaper.{{Cite news |last=Reynolds |first=John |date=2014-05-19 |title=Sun drops Page 3 for 20m-plus World Cup giveaway |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/may/19/world-cup-marketing-the-sun |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The boycott in Merseyside following the newspaper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 meant that copies were not dispatched to areas with a Liverpool postcode.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sun-hillsborough-boycott-residents-across-the-country-refuse-to-accept-free-world-cup-pride-edition-of-sun-newspaper-9531999.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sun-hillsborough-boycott-residents-across-the-country-refuse-to-accept-free-world-cup-pride-edition-of-sun-newspaper-9531999.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Sun Hillsborough boycott: Residents across the country refuse to accept free 'World Cup Pride' edition of Sun newspaper|last=Withnall|first=Adam|date=12 June 2014|work=The Independent}} Royal Mail employees in Merseyside and surrounding areas were given special dispensation by their managers to allow them not to handle the publication "on a case by case basis".

The main party leaders (David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband) were all depicted holding a copy of the special issue in publicity material.{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband-says-sorry-after-picture-with-the-sun-angers-labour-in-liverpool-9534911.html|title=Ed Miliband says sorry after picture with The Sun angers Labour in Liverpool|last=Rachel|first=Blundy|date=13 June 2014|work=Evening Standard}} Miliband's decision to pose with a copy of The Sun received a strong response.{{Cite web |last=Mole |first=Media |date=2014-06-12 |title=Ed Miliband, the anti-Murdoch crusader, poses with a special edition of the Sun |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/06/ed-miliband-anti-murdoch-crusader-poses-special-edition |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=New Statesman |language=en-US}}'Steerpike' [http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/06/coffee-shot-ed-miliband-endorses-the-sunand-looks-incredibly-weird/ "Coffee Shot: Ed Miliband endorses The Sun... and looks incredibly weird"], The Spectator (blog), 12 June 2014 Organisations representing the relatives of Hillsborough victims described Miliband's action as an "absolute disgrace",{{Cite news |date=2014-06-13 |title=Ed Miliband apologises for offence over Sun picture |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-27829958 |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}} and he faced criticism too from Liverpool Labour MPs and the city's Labour Mayor, Joe Anderson.{{Cite news |last=Wintour |first=Patrick |date=2014-06-13 |title=Ed Miliband lambasted by Liverpool politicians for posing with copy of Sun |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jun/13/ed-miliband-liverpool-sun-labour-hillsborough-phone-hacking |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} A statement was issued on 13 June explaining that Miliband "was promoting England's bid to win the World Cup" although "he understands the anger that is felt towards the Sun over Hillsborough by many people in Merseyside and he is sorry to those who feel offended".{{Cite web |date=2014-06-13 |title=Ed Miliband apologises after posing with The Sun |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/10897655/Ed-Miliband-apologises-after-posing-with-The-Sun.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}} Promoted as "an unapologetic celebration of England", the special issue of The Sun ran to 24 pages.

On 2 June 2013, The Sun on Sunday ran a front-page story on singer-songwriter Tulisa.{{Cite news |last=Greenslade |first=Roy |date=2013-07-19 |title=Tulisa 'entrapped by Sun on Sunday' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/jul/19/sun-on-sunday-tulisa-contostavlos |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} The front page read: "Tulisa's cocaine deal shame"; this story was written by The Sun On Sunday{{'}}s undercover reporter Mahzer Mahmood, who had previously worked for the News of the World. It was claimed that Tulisa introduced three film producers (actually Mahmood and two other Sun journalists) to a drug dealer and set up an £800 deal. The subterfuge involved conning the singer into believing that she was being considered for a role in an £8 million Bollywood film.Adam Sherwin [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/questions-raised-over-the-suns-elaborate-tulisa-contostavlos-cocaine-sting-8659638.html "Questions raised over The Sun's elaborate Tulisa Contostavlos cocaine sting"], The Independent, 14 June 2013

At her subsequent trial, the case against Tulisa passed out at Southwark Crown Court in July 2014, with the judge commenting that there were "strong grounds" to believe that Mahmood had lied at a pre-trial hearing and tried to manipulate evidence against the co-defendant Tulisa.{{Cite news |last1=Walker |first1=Peter |last2=Collier |first2=Hatty |date=2014-07-22 |title=Mazher Mahmood could face perjury investigation after Tulisa trial collapse |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/22/mazher-mahmood-sun-perjury-probe-tulisa-contostavlos-trial |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Tulisa was cleared of supplying Class A drugs. After these events, The Sun released a statement saying that the newspaper "takes the Judge's remarks very seriously. Mahmood has been suspended pending an immediate internal investigation".{{Cite web |date=2014-07-22 |title='Fake Sheikh' Mazher Mahmood suspended by The Sun after Tulisa's |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/tulisa-trial-thrown-out-fake-sheikh-mazher-mahmood-suspended-by-the-sun-9619052.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Independent |language=en}}

{{overly detailed|section|date=September 2021}}

In October 2014, the trial of six senior staff and journalists at The Sun newspaper began. All six were charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office. They included The Sun{{'}}s head of news Chris Pharo, who faced six charges, while ex-managing editor Graham Dudman and ex-Sun deputy news editor Ben O'Driscoll were accused of four charges each. Thames Valley district reporter Jamie Pyatt and picture editor John Edwards were charged with three counts each, while ex-reporter John Troup was accused of two counts. The trial related to illegal payments allegedly made to public officials, with prosecutors saying the men conspired to pay officials from 2002 to 2011, including police, prison officers and soldiers. They were accused of buying confidential information about the Royal Family, public figures and prison inmates. They all denied the charges.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29645621|title=Sun staff made illegal payments on 'grand scale', court hears|author= |date=16 October 2014 |work=BBC News | access-date=16 October 2014}}

On 16 January 2015, Troup and Edwards were cleared by the jury of all charges against them. The jury also partially cleared O'Driscoll and Dudman but continued deliberating over other counts faced by them, as well as the charges against Pharo and Pyatt.{{cite web| title= Operation Elveden: Journalists cleared in Sun trial|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30855075| author= |date=16 January 2015| work= BBC News| access-date=20 January 2015}} On 21 January 2015, the jury told the court that it was unable to reach unanimous verdicts on any of the outstanding charges and was told by the judge, Richard Marks, that he would accept majority verdicts. Shortly afterwards, one of the jurors sent a note to the judge and was discharged. The judge told the remaining 11 jurors that their colleague had been "feeling unwell and feeling under a great deal of pressure and stress from the situation you are in", and that under the circumstances he was prepared to accept majority verdicts of "11 to zero or 10 to 1".{{cite news |last= O'Carroll |first= Lisa | title= Juror in trial of Sun journalists discharged due to 'pressure and stress'|url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/21/juror-discharged-sun-journalists-trial| date=21 January 2015| newspaper= The Guardian |location=London| access-date=21 January 2015}} On 22 January 2015, the jury was discharged after failing to reach verdicts on the outstanding charges. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) announced that it would seek a retrial.{{cite web| title= Operation Elveden: Jury in Sun staff trial discharged|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30935857| author= |date=22 January 2015| work= BBC News | access-date=26 January 2015}}

On 6 February 2015, it was announced that Judge Richard Marks was to be replaced by Judge Charles Wide at the retrial. Two days earlier, Marks had emailed counsel for the defendants, telling them: "It has been decided (not by me but by my elders and betters) that I am not going to be doing the retrial". Reporting the decision in UK newspaper The Guardian, Lisa O'Carroll wrote: "Wide is the only judge so far to have presided in a case which has seen a conviction of a journalist in relation to allegations of unlawful payments to public officials for stories. The journalist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is appealing the verdict". Defence counsel for the four journalists threatened to take the decision to judicial review, with the barrister representing Pharo, Nigel Rumfitt QC, saying: "The way this has come about gives rise to the impression that something has been going on behind the scenes which should not have been going on behind the scenes and which should have been dealt with transparently". He added that the defendants were "extremely concerned" and "entitled" to know why Marks was being replaced by Wide.{{cite news | title= Sun journalists retrial row after judge removed from case |url= https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/06/sun-journalists-retrial-row-after-judge-removed-from-case | last= O'Carroll| first= Lisa| date= 6 February 2015| newspaper= The Guardian| location= London | access-date=6 February 2015}} In a separate trial, Sun reporter Nick Parker was cleared on 9 December 2014 of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office but found guilty of handling a stolen mobile phone belonging to Labour MP Siobhain McDonagh.{{cite web |url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30397952 |title=Sun journalist Nick Parker cleared of misconduct|author= |date=9 December 2014 |work=BBC News | access-date=9 December 2014}}

On 22 May 2015, Sun reporter Anthony France was found guilty of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office between 2008 and 2011. France's trial followed the London Metropolitan Police's Operation Elveden, an ongoing investigation into alleged payments to police and officials in exchange for information. He had paid a total of more than £22,000 to PC Timothy Edwards, an anti-terrorism police officer based at Heathrow Airport. The police officer had already pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office and given a two-year jail sentence in 2014, but the jury in France's trial was not informed of this. Following the passing of the guilty verdict, the officer leading Operation Elveden, Detective Chief Superintendent Gordon Briggs said France and Edwards had been in a "long-term, corrupt relationship".{{cite web | title= Sun reporter Anthony France guilty over police story tips|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32852033| author=|date= 22 May 2015| work= BBC News | access-date= 22 May 2015}} The BBC reported that France was the first journalist to face trial and be convicted under Operation Elveden since the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had revised its guidance in April 2015 so that prosecutions would only be brought against journalists who had made payments to police officers over a period of time. As a result of the change in the CPS' policy, charges against several journalists who had made payments to other types of public officials – including civil servants, health workers and prison staff – had been dropped.

In July 2015, Private Eye magazine reported that, at a costs hearing at the Old Bailey, The Sun{{'s}} parent company had refused to pay for the prosecution costs relating to France's trial, leading the presiding judge to express his "considerable disappointment" at this state of affairs. Judge Timothy Pontius said in court that France's illegal actions had been part of a "clearly recognised procedure at The Sun", adding that, "There can be no doubt that News International bears some measure of moral responsibility if not legal culpability for the acts of the defendant". The Private Eye report noted that despite this The Sun{{'s}} parent organisation was "considering disciplinary actions" against France whilst at the same time it was also preparing to bring a case to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal against the London Metropolitan Police Service for its actions relating to him and two other journalists.{{cite news | title= Street of Shame| author=|date= 24 July 2015| work= Private Eye |issue= 1397| page= 8}}

The Sun defended Page 3 for more than 40 years, with (then) editor Dominic Mohan telling the Leveson Inquiry into press standards, in February 2012, that "Page 3" was an "innocuous British Institution, regarded with affection and tolerance".{{cite web|url=http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/evidence/?witness=dominic-mohan |title=Evidence |publisher=Levesoninquiry.org.uk |access-date=21 January 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116035920/http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/evidence/?witness=dominic-mohan | archive-date=16 January 2013 | url-status=unfit}} To mark the feature's 40th anniversary, feminist author Germaine Greer wrote an article in The Sun on 18 November 2010 published under the headline: "If I ask my odd-job man what he gets out of page 3, he tells me simply, 'It cheers me up{{'"}}.{{Cite web|url=http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Second-Witness-Statement-of-Dominic-Mohan1.pdf|date=10 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120210064104/http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Second-Witness-Statement-of-Dominic-Mohan1.pdf|title=Second Witness Statement of Dominic Mohan|archive-date=10 February 2012 | url-status=unfit}}

In August 2013, The Irish Sun ended the practice of featuring topless models on Page 3.{{cite news|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/08/sun-page-3|title=The Sun's Irish edition drops topless Page 3 pictures|work=The Guardian |location=UK |date= 8 August 2013| access-date=8 August 2013}} The main newspaper was reported to have followed in 2015 with the edition of 16 January supposedly the last to carry such photographs after a report in The Times made such an assertion.{{Cite news |last1=O'Carroll |first1=Lisa |last2=Sweney |first2=Mark |last3=Greenslade |first3=Roy |date=2015-01-20 |title=Page 3: The Sun calls time on topless models after 44 years |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/19/has-the-sun-axed-page-3-topless-pictures |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |date=2015-01-19 |title=The Sun drops Page 3 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/11356186/Has-The-Sun-quietly-dropped-Page-3.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}} After substantial coverage in the media about an alleged change in editorial policy, Page 3 returned to its usual format on 22 January 2015.{{Cite web |date=2015-01-21 |title=The Sun brings back Page 3 - but was it all a stunt? |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11361739/The-Sun-brings-back-page-3.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Telegraph |language=en}} A few hours before the issue was published, the head of PR at the newspaper said the reputed end of Page 3 had been "speculation" only.{{Cite news |last1=Quinn |first1=Ben |last2=O'Carroll |first2=Lisa |date=2015-01-22 |title=Page 3: The Sun brings back topless women |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/22/the-sun-topless-women-page-3 |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} Apart from the edition of 22 January 2015, the conventional Page 3 feature of a topless model has not returned, and has effectively ended.{{Cite news |last=Greenslade |first=Roy |date=2015-03-06 |title=The Sun suffers big sales fall without Page 3 - but don't rush to conclusions |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/mar/06/the-sun-suffers-big-sales-fall-without-page-3-but-dont-rush-to-conclusions |access-date=2024-02-25 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

On 17 April 2015, The Sun{{'s}} columnist Katie Hopkins called migrants to Britain "cockroaches" and "feral humans" and said they were "spreading like the norovirus".{{cite news|url=http://www.itv.com/news/2015-04-18/katie-hopkins-compares-migrants-to-cockroaches-and-suggests-using-gunships-to-stop-them-crossing-the-mediterranean/|title=Katie Hopkins compares migrants to 'cockroaches' and suggests using gunships to stop them crossing the Mediterranean|date=18 April 2015|publisher=ITV News}}{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/hateful-katie-hopkins-column-on-migrants-causes-twitter-backlash-as-russell-brand-wades-into-debate-10186342.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/hateful-katie-hopkins-column-on-migrants-causes-twitter-backlash-as-russell-brand-wades-into-debate-10186342.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title='Hateful' Katie Hopkins column on migrants causes Twitter backlash, as Russell Brand wades into debate|work=The Independent|date=17 April 2015|last=Gander|first=Kashmira}} Her remarks were condemned by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. In a statement released on 24 April 2015, High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein stated that Hopkins used "language very similar to that employed by Rwanda's Kangura newspaper and Radio Mille Collines during the run up to the 1994 genocide", and noted that both media organisations were subsequently convicted by an international tribunal of public incitement to commit genocide.{{cite news|last1=Stone|first1=Jon|title=Katie Hopkins' migrant 'cockroaches' column resembles pro-genocide propaganda, says the UN|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/katie-hopkins-migrant-cockroaches-column-resembles-progenocide-propaganda-says-the-un-10201959.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/katie-hopkins-migrant-cockroaches-column-resembles-progenocide-propaganda-says-the-un-10201959.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=The Independent|access-date=24 April 2015}}

In August 2017, The Sun published a column by Trevor Kavanagh which questioned what actions British society should take to deal with "The Muslim Problem". Numerous sources suggested the column used language reminiscent of Nazi propaganda and Nazi phrases.{{cite news|last=O'Grady|first=Sean|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-muslim-problem-islamophobia-ira-northern-ireland-racism-fuelling-hatred-a7894691.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-muslim-problem-islamophobia-ira-northern-ireland-racism-fuelling-hatred-a7894691.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Sun can't pretend saying we have a 'Muslim Problem' isn't reminiscent of Nazi propaganda|work=The Independent|date=15 August 2017|access-date=16 August 2017}} A joint complaint was made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Tell MAMA and Faith Matters. A statement by the groups said, "The printing of the phrase 'The Muslim Problem'{{snd}} particularly with the capitalisation and italics for emphasis{{snd}} in a national newspaper sets a dangerous precedent, and harks back to the use of the phrase 'The Jewish problem' in the last century, to which the Nazis responded with 'The Final Solution'{{snd}} the Holocaust".{{cite news|last=Ponsford|first=Dominic|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/campaigner-unable-to-complain-over-sun-muslim-problem-piece-because-religious-groups-not-covered-by-editors-code/|title=Campaigner unable to complain over Sun 'Muslim problem' piece because religious groups not covered by Editors' Code|work=Press Gazette|date=15 August 2017|access-date=16 August 2017}} A cross-party group of over 100 MPs from the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens subsequently signed a letter to the editor of The Sun demanding action over the column. The letter stated the MPs "were truly outraged by the hate and bigotry" in Kavanagh's column.{{Cite news|last=Cowburn|first=Ashley|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/over-100-cross-party-politicians-demand-action-over-muslim-problem-article-in-sun-newspaper-a7895211.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220620/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/over-100-cross-party-politicians-demand-action-over-muslim-problem-article-in-sun-newspaper-a7895211.html |archive-date=20 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=More than 100 MPs demand action over Sun's 'Muslim Problem' article|work=The Independent|date=15 August 2017|access-date=16 August 2017}}

On 9 March 2016, The Sun{{'}}s front page proclaimed that Queen Elizabeth II was backing Brexit, a common term for a British withdrawal from the European Union. It claimed that in 2011 at Windsor Castle, while having lunch with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, the monarch criticised the union. Clegg denied that the Queen made such a statement, and a Buckingham Palace spokesperson confirmed that a complaint had been made to the Independent Press Standards Organisation over a breach of guidelines relating to accuracy.{{cite news|last1=Martinson|first1=Jane|title=Palace complains to watchdog over Sun's 'Queen backs Brexit' claims|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/09/palace-sun-queen-backs-brexit-ipso|access-date=9 March 2016|work=The Guardian|date=9 March 2016}}

The Sun officially endorsed the Leave campaign in the British referendum to remain in or leave the European Union (EU) on 23 June 2016, urging its readers to vote for the United Kingdom to leave the EU.{{cite news|last=Hughes|first=Laura|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/14/the-sun-comes-out-in-favour-of-brexit-and-urges-readers-to-free/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/14/the-sun-comes-out-in-favour-of-brexit-and-urges-readers-to-free/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The Sun comes out in favour of Brexit and urges readers to free Britain from 'dictatorial Brussels'|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=14 June 2016|access-date=14 June 2016}}{{cbignore}} The "BeLeave in Britain" front-page headline was only present on copies distributed in England and Wales; editions for Scotland, Northern Ireland (and the Republic of Ireland) led on other topics.{{cite news|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jun/14/the-suns-pro-brexit-campaigning-doesnt-cross-borders|title=The Sun's pro-Brexit campaigning doesn't cross borders|work=The Guardian|date=14 June 2016|access-date=15 June 2016}} On 4 April 2017, The Sun printed a headline "Up Yours, Senors" (cross-referring the 1990 headline "Up Yours, Delors" regarding the ECU). It was in relation to disputes over the sovereignty of Gibraltar following the EU referendum. The middle pages featured a poster with the message "Hands off our rock".{{cite news|url=http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sun-reprises-1990-classic-front-with-up-yours-senors-message-to-spain-over-gibraltar/|title=Sun reprises 1990 classic front with 'UP YOURS SENORS' message to Spain over Gibraltar|work=Press Gazette|date=4 April 2017|access-date=5 April 2017}}

In June 2016, a redesign of The Sun{{'s}} website went live.{{cite web|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jun/08/the-sun-launches-a-redesigned-and-much-improved-website|title=The Sun launches a redesigned – and much improved – website|work=The Guardian|date=8 June 2016|access-date=9 June 2016}}

In September 2019, The Sun came under strong criticism for a headline story concerning the family of the cricket player Ben Stokes. Tom Harrison, the chief executive of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), stated he was "disgusted and appalled" by the newspaper's actions. The story prompted a statement from Stokes calling the article the "lowest form of journalism", which dealt with "deeply personal and traumatic events" that had affected his New Zealand-based family more than 30 years ago. The Sun defended its journalism by pointing out it had received the co-operation of a family member; it has commented that the events described were "a matter of public record" and "the subject of extensive front-page publicity in New Zealand at the time".{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/49733464 |title=Ben Stokes: 'Country stands behind him' over row with Sun, says cricket chief |date=17 September 2019 |work=BBC News }}

Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas told BBC Radio 5 Live that an unnamed journalist had revealed his HIV status to his parents before he had had the opportunity to do so himself.{{cite news |url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/welsh-rugby-star-gareth-thomas-says-journalist-revealed-his-hiv-status-to-his-parents/ |title=Welsh rugby star Gareth Thomas says journalist revealed his HIV status to his parents |first=Freddy |last=Mayhew |work=Press Gazette |date=18 September 2019 |access-date=25 December 2019 }} While Thomas declined to name the newspaper involved, he did say "everybody will know, especially of late", leading the Press Gazette to suggest that it could be The Sun, on the basis of the Stokes coverage.

During the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, The Sun endorsed Boris Johnson.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9521657/sun-readers-boris-johnson-winner/|title=Sun readers know a winner when they see one... Boris Johnson has to be our next PM|date=16 July 2019|website=The Sun|language=en-GB|access-date=19 November 2019}}

In December 2019, The Sun's political editor, Tom Newton Dunn, wrote an article for the paper titled "Hijacked Labour", alleging that "Jeremy Corbyn is at the centre of an extraordinary network of hard-left extremists pieced together by former British intelligence officers", a network ranging from Novara Media contributor Ash Sarkar to French philosopher Michel Foucault, who has been dead since 1984, that is alleged to be pulling Corbyn's strings.{{Cite news|url=https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10501848/jeremy-corbyn-extremist-network/|title='HIJACKED LABOUR' Ex-British intelligence officers say Jeremy Corbyn is at the centre of a hard-left extremist network|last=Newton Dunn|first=Tom|date=7 December 2019|work=The Sun|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207145207/https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10501848/jeremy-corbyn-extremist-network/|access-date=20 December 2019|archive-date=7 December 2019}} It was later found that the ultimate sources for this claim included the antisemitic, far-right websites The Millennium Report and Aryan Unity. The allegations were described by author Daniel Trilling as "a far-right conspiracy theory".{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/09/sun-publish-far-right-conspiracy-theory-labour|title=Why did the Sun publish a far-right conspiracy theory? {{!}} Daniel Trilling|last=Trilling|first=Daniel|date=9 December 2019|work=The Guardian|access-date=20 December 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} The left-wing magazine Tribune suggested that such articles might get journalists or those on the political left assaulted or even killed.{{Cite news|url=https://tribunemag.co.uk/2019/12/the-sun-is-going-to-get-people-killed|title=The Sun is Going to Get People Killed|last=Finn|first=Daniel|date=9 December 2019|work=Tribune Magazine|access-date=20 December 2019}} Later on the same day the article was published, it was also deleted, without comment from the paper or Newton Dunn.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/43kkpq/labour-smear-campaign-the-sun|title=A History of Labour as a 'Terrifying National Threat'|last=Rickett|first=Oscar|date=9 December 2019|website=Vice|language=en|access-date=20 December 2019}}{{Cite news|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2019/12/boris-johnson-tories-conservative-party-lies-uk-general-election|title=Something Frightening Is Happening in British Politics|last=Foster|first=Dawn|date=11 December 2019|work=Jacobin|access-date=20 December 2019}}

In the 2019 UK general election The Sun endorsed the Conservative Party.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10533081/election-boris-bright-future-corbyn-lights-out/|title=We have a bright future with Boris as PM but lights go out if Jez gets in No10|date=11 December 2019|website=The Sun|language=en-gb|access-date=6 January 2020}}

On 9 October 2019, Coleen Rooney made a Twitter post saying that stories from her private Instagram account were being leaked to The Sun.{{cite tweet|last=Rooney|first=Coleen|user=ColeenRoo|number=1181864136155828224|date=9 October 2019|title=This has been a burden in my life for a few years now and finally I have got to the bottom of it......|access-date=31 July 2022}} In order to determine who was selling the information, she restricted access to her Instagram stories and planted a number of fake stories; the only viewer of these posts was an account belonging to Rebekah Vardy. The fake stories were published in The Sun. Rooney's tweet went viral and was dubbed "Wagatha Christie", a portmanteau of the term "WAG"{{efn|An acronym referring to the wives and girlfriends of footballers.}} and the mystery writer Agatha Christie.{{cite news|last=Atkinson|first=Dan|title=Yes, I'm the jester who coined 'Wagatha Christie' – my gift to headline writers everywhere|work=The Guardian|date=15 May 2022|access-date=31 July 2022|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/15/yes-im-jester-who-coined-wagatha-christie-my-gift-to-headline-writers-everywhere}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20200109060612/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/dec/13/coleen-rooney-wagatha-christie-waggate-rebekah-vardy Why Wagatha Christie was an essential reprieve in a year of dreadful news] The Guardian 13 December 2019. Vardy denied these claims and stated that her Instagram account had been hacked.{{cite tweet|last=Vardy|first=Rebekah|user=RebekahVardy|number=1181871914081509376|date=9 October 2019|title=@ColeenRoo ...|access-date=31 July 2022}} As a result, Vardy sued Rooney for libel.{{cite news|last=Brinsford|first=James|date=23 June 2020|title=Rebekah Vardy sues Coleen Rooney in High Court as she launches '£1m lawsuit'|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/rebekah-vardy-sues-coleen-rooney-22236353|work=Daily Mirror|access-date=31 July 2022}} Rooney asked Vardy to not take the case to court which she rejected. Therefore, it became Rooney's responsibility to prove Vardy was personally responsible for leaking stories to The Sun, or convince the judge that publication of the allegation was in the public interest.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/10/wagatha-christie-rebekah-vardy-v-coleen-rooney-libel-trial-begins | title='Wagatha Christie': Vardy accused of destroying evidence as libel trial begins | website=TheGuardian.com | date=31 May 2022 }}

It was alleged in court that Vardy was also The Sun on Sunday{{'s}} Secret Wag columnist, which is an anonymous gossip column about the private lives of the wives and girlfriends of famous UK footballers which often made disparaging comments about the subjects. Vardy denied this claim.{{cite web | url=https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/jul/07/rebekah-vardy-could-have-to-reveal-details-of-any-conversations-with-sun-journalists | title='Rebekah Vardy may be forced to reveal any conversations with Sun journalists | website=TheGuardian.com | date=7 July 2021 }} On 29 July 2022, Karen Steyn, the judge in the case, dismissed Vardy's claim. She ruled that Rooney's accusation of Vardy leaking fake stories to the paper was "substantially true".{{cite news |title=Wagatha Christie: Rebekah Vardy loses libel case against Coleen Rooney |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61719250 |work=BBC |access-date=29 July 2022}} Steyn said that "The Secret Wag" "is highly likely{{nbsp}}... [to have been] a journalistic construct rather than a person", saying that "the evidence connecting Ms Vardy to this column is thin".{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=David |title=Wagatha Christie verdict: Rebekah Vardy loses libel case against Coleen Rooney |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/wagatha-christie-trial-verdict-due-in-rebekah-vardys-libel-claim-against-coleen-rooney-s5x295sd2 |access-date=30 July 2022 |work=The Times |date=29 July 2022 |quote=Rooney accused Vardy of being a significant contributor to The Secret Wag column published by The Sun on Sunday in 2019. The judge said the short-lived column seemed more 'a journalistic construct' and the evidence linking it to Vardy was 'thin'.}}{{cite web |last1=Steyn |first1=Karen |author1-link=Karen Steyn |title=Approved Judgment |url=https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Vardy-v-Rooney-Trial-Judgment.pdf |website=judiciary.uk |access-date=31 July 2022 |date=29 July 2022|quote=First, it is highly likely that 'the Secret Wag' was a journalistic construct rather than a person. That being so, it is unsurprising, and provides no support for the allegation, that there are similarities between the attributes ascribed to {{not a typo|the 'the}} Secret Wag' in the column and Ms Vardy. Secondly, the evidence connecting Ms Vardy to this column is thin. There is an email from the News Editor of the MailOnline in which he is asked for 'absolute confirmation that the Secret Wag is Rebekah' and responds 'Yeh, she is'. The author of the email has not given evidence. He did not work for the newspaper in which 'the Secret Wag' column was published, and his email discloses no basis for his assertion.}} The case was a hugely popular story in the British media and while The Sun did cover it extensively, they failed to mention that they were the paper Vardy had leaked untrue stories to.

On 14 February 2020, a day before Caroline Flack was found dead in her Stoke Newington flat, The Sun published an article about a "brutal" Valentine's Day card mocking Flack on its website. It is unclear when the article, which was replaced with a legal warning by Saturday evening{{snd}} amid concerns about how the media handled coverage of her arrest{{snd}} was taken down.{{Cite news|last=Waterson|first=Jim|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/15/the-sun-takes-down-article-about-caroline-flack-from-website|title=The Sun takes down article about Caroline Flack from website|date=16 February 2020|work=The Guardian|access-date=21 February 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}} Days after Flack's death, more than 200,000 people signed a petition calling for a Government inquiry into the British press and the hashtag #DontBuyTheSun began to trend on Twitter.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/the-sun-deletes-article-poking-fun-at-flack-following-tragic-death/16/02/|title=The Sun deletes article poking fun at Flack following tragic death|date=16 February 2020|website=The London Economic|language=en-GB|access-date=21 February 2020}}

In June 2020, shortly after J. K. Rowling published a blog in which she described her first marriage as "violent", The Sun interviewed Jorge Arantes, Rowling's former husband, and published a front-page article entitled "I slapped JK and I'm not sorry". In response, a number of domestic abuse charities criticised the newspaper for its handling of the story. The press regulator Ipso reported that it had received more than 500 complaints about the article.{{Cite news|date=12 June 2020|title=Paper faces backlash for headline on Rowling's ex|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53023543|access-date=12 June 2020}} The article was also criticised by some British politicians with Labour MP Jess Phillips describing the headline as "awful" and Ed Davey, the acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, adding, "This reporting is unacceptable, glorifies domestic violence & disparages the millions of victims of domestic violence".{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/12/uk/jk-rowling-the-sun-front-page-scli-gbr-intl/index.html|title=UK tabloid accused of glorifying domestic violence with J.K. Rowling front page|first=Rob|last=Picheta|website=CNN|date=12 June 2020 }}

{{overly detailed|section|date=July 2023}}

In December 2022, columnist Jeremy Clarkson was criticised for writing of Meghan, Duchess of Sussex in The Sun:{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-john-bishop-b2247421.html|title='You cannot write things like this': John Bishop and Carol Vorderman among stars to condemn Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan Markle rant|work=The Independent|first=Maanya|last=Sachdeva|date=18 December 2022|access-date=18 December 2022}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/18/jeremy-clarkson-condemned-meghan-column-the-sun|title=Jeremy Clarkson condemned over Meghan column in the Sun|work=The Guardian|first=Sophie|last=Zeldin-O'Neill|date=18 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}}

{{blockquote|I hate her. Not like I hate Nicola Sturgeon or Rose West. I hate her on a cellular level. At night, I'm unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, 'Shame!' and throw lumps of excrement at her.}}

He said this was a reference to a scene from the television series Game of Thrones.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64085604|title=Prince Harry and Meghan criticise the Sun's Jeremy Clarkson apology|work=BBC News|last1=Bubalo|first1=Mattea|last2=Lee|first2=Dulcie|date=24 December 2022|access-date=15 January 2023}} He had used the same reference in an article published in The Sun in December 2018 to defend Meghan.{{cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1722497/meghan-markle-omid-scobie-jeremy-clarkson|title=Meghan's biographer claims 'hate can do crazy things' after Clarkson's apology backfires|work=Daily Express|first=Christopher|last=Sharp|date=17 January 2023|access-date=17 January 2023}} The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) said it had received more than 25,100 complaints about the piece, surpassing the total number of complaints received in 2021 and making it the article with the most number of complaints attached to it since IPSO's establishment in 2014.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64288418|title=Jeremy Clarkson says he apologised to Harry and Meghan for Sun column|work=BBC News |date=16 January 2023|access-date=16 January 2023}}{{Cite web |last=Maher |first=Bron |date=20 December 2022 |title=IPSO's most complained about articles: From Stonehaven 'Death Express' to Jeremy Clarkson on Meghan Markle |url=https://pressgazette.co.uk/media_law/ipso-most-complained-about-articles/ |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=Press Gazette}}

In light of the controversy, Edward Faulks, the chair of IPSO, declined a private dinner invitation by Rupert Murdoch.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/19/rupert-murdoch-ipso-chair-despite-complaints-jeremy-clarkson-meghan|title=Press watchdog ducks Murdoch dinner date after deluge of Clarkson complaints|work=The Guardian|first=Jim|last=Waterson|date=19 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}} The Scottish first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, whose name was also mentioned in the column, described Clarkson's comments as "deeply misogynist and just downright awful and horrible" and warned that "words have consequences".{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-64000443|title=Sturgeon: Clarkson's Meghan column is "deeply misogynist"|work=BBC News|date=19 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}} The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, responded to the controversy by emphasising that "language matters".{{cite web|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/media/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-sun-column-embarrasses-rupert-murdoch-and-drags-rishi-sunak-into-row-2038150|title=Jeremy Clarkson Meghan Sun column embarrasses Rupert Murdoch and drags Rishi Sunak into row|work=i|first=Adam|last=Sherwin|date=19 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}} In a letter to ITV chief executive Carolyn McCall, SNP MP John Nicolson called on the organisation to sack Clarkson from his job on the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2022/12/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-itv-the-sun-dozens-mps-prince-harry-1235203185/|title=The Sun & ITV Under Pressure From Dozens Of MPs Over 'Violent, Misogynistic' Jeremy Clarkson Column|date=20 December 2022 |publisher=Deadline}}

On 20 December 2022, over 60 cross-party MPs contacted The Sun{{'}}s editor, Victoria Newton, to demand an apology and called for "action [to be] taken" against Clarkson.{{Cite web |date=20 December 2022 |title=MPs urge Sun editor to act against Jeremy Clarkson over Meghan remarks |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/20/mps-urge-sun-editor-to-act-against-jeremy-clarkson-over-meghan-comments |access-date=20 December 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}} On 21 December, Kevin Lygo, the managing director of ITV, stated at a Broadcasting Press Guild event that Clarkson would remain host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? "at the moment", as ITV had "no control" over what he said in The Sun newspaper column, but added that what he wrote "was awful" and "he should apologise" for his comments.{{cite web|url=https://theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/21/jeremy-clarkson-to-remain-host-of-who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire-says-itv-boss|title=Jeremy Clarkson to remain host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? says ITV boss|work=The Guardian|first=Jim|last=Waterson|date=21 December 2022|access-date=21 December 2022}} On the same day the head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley stated Clarkson would not face criminal proceedings for his actions as it was not the job of officers to "police people's ethics" and the police could generally get involved when "things are said that are intended or likely to stir up or incite violence".{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-police-b2249239.html|title=Jeremy Clarkson won't face police probe over Meghan column, Met chief says|work=The Independent|first=Matt|last=Mathers|date=21 December 2022|access-date=23 December 2022}}

Peter Herbert, the chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, wrote to the Metropolitan Police requesting an investigation under the Public Order Act 1986 as he believed the column promoted racial hatred.{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/al-sharpton-herbert-jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-b2249924.html|title=Rev Al Sharpton slams Jeremy Clarkson's 'racist' Meghan Markle column amid police petition|work=The Independent|first=Nadine|last=White|date=22 December 2022|access-date=22 December 2022}} The letter was co-signed by the Society of Black Lawyers, Operation Black Vote and Bandung Africa, as well as Lee Jasper, Viv Ahmun, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, and Claudia Webbe. A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said "The allegations have been assessed, no offences have been identified, and no further action will be taken". On 11 January 2023, culture secretary Michelle Donelan described Clarkson's comments as "outrageous" but not "illegal".{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/jeremy-clarkson-meghan-markle-culture-secretary-b2260450.html|title=Culture Secretary says Jeremy Clarkson has the right to 'say what he wants' about Meghan Markle|work=The Independent|first=Tom|last=Murray|date=11 January 2023|access-date=12 January 2023}}

On 19 December 2022, Clarkson stated he was "horrified to have caused so much hurt" over his comments, which were also criticised by his own daughter Emily.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64029690|title=Jeremy Clarkson says he is 'horrified' over Meghan column|work=BBC News|date=19 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}} The Sun{{'}}s website published a statement in response to the criticism: "In light of Jeremy Clarkson's tweet he has asked us to take last week's column down".{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/meghan-markle-jeremy-clarkson-ipso-carol-vorderman-rishi-sunak-b2248182.html|title=Ipso receives more than 12,000 complaints over Jeremy Clarkson article|work=The Independent|first=Mike|last=Bedigan|date=19 December 2022|access-date=19 December 2022}} On 23 December, The Sun issued an apology stating: "Columnists' opinions are their own, but as a publisher, we realise that with free expression comes responsibility. We at the Sun regret the publication of this article and we are sincerely sorry. The article has been removed from our website and archives".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/23/the-sun-apologises-for-jeremy-clarksons-column-on-meghan|title=The Sun apologises for Jeremy Clarkson's column on Meghan|work=The Guardian|first=Nadeem|last=Badshah|date=23 December 2022|access-date=23 December 2022}}

On 24 December, a spokesperson for the Duke and the Duchess of Sussex issued a statement saying: "The fact that the Sun has not contacted The Duchess of Sussex to apologise shows their intent. This is nothing more than a PR stunt{{nbsp}}... A true apology would be a shift in their coverage and ethical standards for all".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/dec/24/sussexes-dismiss-sun-apology-for-clarkson-column-as-pr-stunt|title=Sussexes dismiss Sun apology for Clarkson column as 'PR stunt'|work=The Guardian|first=Jane|last=Clinton|date=24 December 2022|access-date=24 December 2022}} In an Instagram post on 16 January 2023, Clarkson revealed that he had emailed the Duke and Duchess on Christmas Day 2022 to apologise, saying that his language had been "disgraceful" and he was "profoundly sorry". A spokesperson for the couple said Clarkson wrote solely to the Duke and the article was not an isolated incident considering "his long-standing pattern of writing articles that spread hate rhetoric, dangerous conspiracy theories and misogyny".

In February 2023, IPSO announced that it was launching an investigation about the article, over two groups of complaints, from the Fawcett Society and the Wilde Foundation.{{cite web|url=https://news.sky.com/story/jeremy-clarksons-article-about-meghan-press-watchdog-ipso-launches-investigation-12806971|title=Jeremy Clarkson's article about Meghan: Press watchdog IPSO launches investigation|work=Sky News|date=9 February 2023|access-date=9 February 2023}} In June 2023, IPSO concluded that the column was sexist and contained a "pejorative and prejudicial reference" to Meghan's sex, but it rejected complaints that the piece was inaccurate, meant to harass her or included discriminatory references on the grounds of race.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-64489083|title=Jeremy Clarkson's Meghan article was sexist to duchess, press regulator rules|first1=Helen|last1=Bushby|first2=Steven|last2=McIntosh|first3=Ian|last3=Youngs|work=BBC News|date=30 June 2023|accessdate=30 June 2023}}

{{see also|BBC controversies#2023: Explicit pictures sent to Huw Edwards}}

On 7 July 2023, allegations were first reported by the newspaper that a "well known" name at the BBC had paid tens of thousands of pounds to a teenager for sexually explicit photographs that started when they were aged 17.{{Cite news |last=Ambrose |first=Tom |date=8 July 2023 |title=BBC taking claims presenter paid teenager for sexual photos 'very seriously' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/08/bbc-presenter-allegations-teenager |access-date=12 July 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709050309/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/08/bbc-presenter-allegations-teenager |url-status=live }} The allegations had been made by the mother and the stepfather of the alleged victim.{{Cite news |last=Waterson |first=Jim |date=10 July 2023 |title=Claims about BBC presenter are rubbish, says young person at centre of scandal |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/10/claims-about-bbc-presenter-are-rubbish-says-young-person-at-centre-of-scandal |access-date=12 July 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712043715/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/10/claims-about-bbc-presenter-are-rubbish-says-young-person-at-centre-of-scandal |url-status=live }} On 10 July, the lawyer of the alleged victim told the BBC that "nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place between our client and the BBC personality and the allegations reported in The Sun newspaper are rubbish".{{cite news |last1=Gregory |first1=James |title='Nothing inappropriate' in BBC presenter row - young person's lawyer |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66159357 |access-date=13 July 2023 |work=BBC News |date=11 July 2023 |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712180936/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66159357 |url-status=live }}

On 12 July, a statement issued on behalf of senior presenter and newsreader Huw Edwards, by his wife, Vicky Flind, named him as the subject of the allegations.{{Cite web |title=Huw Edwards named as BBC presenter accused of paying teen for explicit pictures |url=https://news.sky.com/story/huw-edwardss-wife-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-accused-of-paying-teen-for-explicit-pictures-report-12917735 |access-date=12 July 2023 |website=Sky News |language=en |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712171406/https://news.sky.com/story/huw-edwardss-wife-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-accused-of-paying-teen-for-explicit-pictures-report-12917735 |url-status=live }} The statement said that Edwards was receiving hospital treatment for an episode of depression, following the publication of the allegations.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2023/jul/12/bbc-presenter-huw-edwards-the-sun-latest-news|title=Huw Edwards' wife says presenter in mental health hospital after allegations in the Sun newspaper – live|language=en|website=The Guardian|date=12 July 2023|author=Nadeem Badshah|access-date=12 July 2023|archive-date=12 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712173926/https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2023/jul/12/bbc-presenter-huw-edwards-the-sun-latest-news|url-status=live}}

A complaint about Edwards' behaviour had been made to the BBC by a family member of the alleged victim on 18 May 2023, and a further detailed phone conversation took place the following day. The BBC's audience services team concluded that there was no evidence of criminality but that further investigations needed to take place.{{cite web |title=BBC presenter allegations: A timeline of how the story has unfolded |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66081060 |website=BBC News |access-date=12 July 2023 |date=10 July 2023 |archive-date=11 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711222559/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66081060 |url-status=live}} On 11 July, a second person accused the unnamed presenter of sending "abusive, expletive-filled messages". The same day, a 23-year-old accused the unnamed presenter of breaking COVID lockdown rules in February 2021.{{Cite web |title=BBC presenter scandal: Star allegedly broke COVID rules to meet 23-year-old - as another complainant reveals messages |url=https://news.sky.com/story/bbc-presenter-faces-new-claims-about-second-young-person-12919166 |access-date=12 July 2023 |website=Sky News |language=en |archive-date=11 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230711212144/https://news.sky.com/story/bbc-presenter-faces-new-claims-about-second-young-person-12919166 |url-status=live }}

On the same day that Edwards was named, the Metropolitan Police reported that "there is no information to indicate that a criminal offence has been committed" following an initial investigation into the matter and said that it would not investigate further. The South Wales Police issue a similar statement.{{Cite news |last=Waterson |first=Jim |date=12 July 2023 |title=Wife of Huw Edwards names him as BBC presenter at centre of allegations |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/wife-of-huw-edwards-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-at-centre-of-allegations |url-status=live |access-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712171507/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/wife-of-huw-edwards-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-at-centre-of-allegations |archive-date=12 July 2023 |issn=0261-3077}} Following the statement by the police and that released by Edward's wife, The Sun stated that it had never insinuated criminality on the part of Edwards and also stated that it would cooperate with the BBC's internal investigation and that it would not publish any further allegations about him.{{Cite news |last1=Waterson |first1=Jim |last2=Booth |first2=Robert |date=12 July 2023 |title=Wife of Huw Edwards names him as BBC presenter at centre of allegations |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/wife-of-huw-edwards-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-at-centre-of-allegations |access-date=12 July 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=12 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230712171507/https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/12/wife-of-huw-edwards-names-him-as-bbc-presenter-at-centre-of-allegations |url-status=live }}

The Sun stated: "It is understood contact between the two started when the youngster was 17 years old", but the reporting did not mention whether explicit photos were exchanged when the alleged victim was 17 years old.{{cite news |last1=MacIntosh |first1=Steven |last2=Youngs |first2=Ian |title=Questions for the Sun over BBC presenter story |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66174059.amp |access-date=13 July 2023 |work=BBC News |date=12 July 2023 |archive-date=13 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230713050551/https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66174059.amp |url-status=live }} The wording of the allegations first reported in The Sun said that a high-profile BBC presenter had given a young person "more than £35,000 since they were 17 in return for sordid images". Wording to this effect was used at least seven times online over the next three days, out of dozens of articles published on the subject by the newspaper[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66186358 Huw Edwards: How Sun story about BBC presenter developed]. BBC News. 16 July 2023. Retrieved 16 July 2023.

In July 2023, allegations were published by the Byline Times about the conduct of Dan Wootton while he worked at The Sun... In 2014, Wootton became editor of the paper's Bizarre column and remained with the paper until January 2021. An article by Byline Times alleged that during Wootton's tenure as Bizarre'' editor that he instructed male pornographic actors to use equipment to film themselves secretly having sex with men he had spoken to on Facebook. The article also claimed Wootton paid the pornographic actors by misappropriating funds for sources from News UK.{{cite news |first1=Dan |last1=Evans |last2=Latchem |first2=Tom |date=26 July 2023 |title=Dan Wootton Paid Porn Stars with Sun's Depp Money for Covert Catfish Sex Videos |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/26/dan-wootton-paid-porn-stars-with-suns-depp-money-for-covert-catfish-sex-videos/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |website=Byline Times}}

Another story published by Byline Times in late July 2023 claimed Wootton oversaw a culture of sexual harassment at The Sun and was the subject of at least six bullying claims by colleagues, all of which resulted in large pay-offs and confidentiality agreements.{{cite news |first1=Dan |last1=Evans |last2=Latchem |first2=Tom |date=20 July 2023 |title=Dan Wootton was a 'Serial Bully' at the Sun – But Bosses Promoted Him as Complaints were Silenced |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2023/07/20/dan-wootton-was-a-serial-bully-at-the-sun-but-bosses-promoted-him-as-complaints-were-silenced/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |website=Byline Times}} These allegations resulted in an investigation by an external law firm hired by News UK. On 2 October 2023, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that after seeking to "establish whether any criminal offence" had taken place, they had now commenced an investigation into the allegations. They added that no arrests had been made.{{cite news |first1=Dan |last1=Evans |last2=Latchem |first2=Tom |date=2 October 2023 |title=Police Investigating Dan Wootton Over Allegations of 10-Year Catfishing Campaign Following Byline Times' Special Investigation |url=https://bylinetimes.com/2023/10/02/police-investigating-dan-wootton-over-allegations-of-10-year-catfishing-campaign-following-byline-times-special-investigation/ |access-date=4 October 2023 |website=Byline Times}} Wootton denied any wrongdoing and said that he was the victim of "a smear campaign".{{cite news |last1=Minelle |first1=Bethany |title=Dan Wootton: GB News presenter hits out at 'untrue' allegations and claims he is the victim of a 'smear campaign' |url=https://news.sky.com/story/dan-wootton-gb-news-presenter-hits-out-at-untrue-allegations-and-claims-he-is-the-victim-of-a-smear-campaign-12923277 |access-date=4 October 2023 |work=Sky News |date=19 July 2023}}

In December 2023, The Sun published an article in which the teenage darts sensation Luke Littler was photographed smiling holding a kebab and a Sun newspaper, with the caption "Sun reader Luke Littler celebrates his latest world championship victory with a trademark kebab". This was seen as a PR stunt by The Sun, and the teenager received backlash for being from Runcorn, which is near Liverpool, the vitriol related to the newspaper's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster. Littler later clarified on Twitter that he was then not fully aware what was going on.{{cite web |last=James |first=Dylan |date=30 December 2023 |title=Luke Littler issues statement after picture of darts star sparked criticism |url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/other-sport/luke-littler-issues-statement-after-28368573 |access-date=6 July 2024 |website=Wales Online}} For the tweet, see {{cite tweet|last=Littler|first=Luke|user=LukeTheNuke180|number=1740809972198334940|date=29 December 2023|title=* STATEMENT TO EVERYONE FROM US * Today a......|access-date=6 July 2024}}

On 13 January 2024, the Bolton Wanderers EFL League One fixture with Cheltenham Town was abandoned after 29 minutes when the 71-year-old spectator Iain Purslow collapsed in the crowd and needed CPR. Purslow later died in hospital. The Sun was heavily criticised for its headline and sub-headline the following day, and The Bolton News described it as "distasteful".{{Cite web |date=2024-01-14 |title=Football fans slam Sun for 'disgusting' headline over tragic Wanderers fan death |url=https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/24048720.sun-slammed-headline-bolton-wanderers-fan-death/ |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Bolton News |language=en}}

The Sun dominated the circulation figures for daily newspapers in the United Kingdom from the late 1970s, at times easily outpacing its nearest rivals, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail. For a brief period in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the lead was more than one million copies per day.{{Cite web|last=Tobitt|first=Charlotte|date=15 March 2018|title=National newspaper ABCs: Metro climbs above The Sun's total circulation as Mirror and Telegraph titles post double-digit drops|url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newspaper-abcs-metro-climbs-above-the-suns-total-circulation-as-mirror-and-telegraph-titles-post-double-digit-drops/|work=Press Gazette}} In January 2000, circulation was approximately 3.5 million per day, whilst daily circulation for those rivals was around 2.3 million.

Sustained decline from digital disruption{{cite web |url= https://pressgazette.co.uk/uk-national-newspaper-sales-slump-by-two-thirds-in-20-years-amid-digital-disruption/ |title= UK national newspaper sales slump by two-thirds in 20 years amid digital disruption |work=Press Gazette |date=26 February 2020 |access-date=10 July 2022}} began in 2004, in line with print journalism as a whole, and The Sun lost more than a million copies from its daily figures in the six-year period from 2012 to 2018. The Sun{{'}}s long run at the top was finally broken in February 2018 when it was announced that the circulation of the free Metro newspaper had overtaken it for the first time. However, it remains the most-selling newspaper in the UK.

In February 2020, it was revealed that daily sales of The Sun had fallen 8% to 1.38 million in the year to July, but the publication then remained the UK's biggest-selling paid-for paper. The Sun on Sunday sold an average of 1.16 million copies a week, 111,000 fewer than the year before.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51608099|title=Sun's owner reports £68m loss as paper sales fall|date=23 February 2020|work=BBC News|access-date=24 February 2020|language=en-GB}}

News Group Newspapers reported that The Sun lost £68m in 2019, with sales falling as the company continued to deal with costs arising from the phone-hacking scandal. In April 2020, News UK instructed Audit Bureau of Circulations that its circulation data should be kept private and would be shared only with advertising agencies in confidence.{{Cite web|last=Mayhew|first=Freddy|date=21 May 2020|url=https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newsbrand-abc-sales-slump-during-uk-lockdown/|title=National newsbrand ABCs: Sales slump during UK lockdown|work=Press Gazette}} In May 2020, The Sun{{'}}s 42-year run as the top selling paper came to an end when eclipsed by the Daily Mail.{{Cite web |date=2020-06-20 |title=Daily Mail takes title of UK's most read paper from The Sun after 42-year run |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/daily-mail-the-sun-circulation-most-read-newspaper-uk-a9576761.html |access-date=2024-02-25 |website=The Independent |language=en}}

In the year ending June 2020, the newspaper posted a pre-tax £202m loss, a significant increase from £67.8m the previous year. The majority of the loss, 80%, was thought to be from payments in damages from phone hacking, although revenue from sales and advertising was being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The value of the newspaper was written down by £84m, in effect to zero, with the company believing that The Sun and Sun on Sunday would not return to growth.{{cite news|last=Sweney|first=Mark|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/jun/11/rupert-murdoch-writes-down-value-of-sun-newspapers-to-zero|title=Rupert Murdoch writes down value of Sun newspapers to zero|work=The Guardian|date=12 June 2021|access-date=12 June 2021}}{{cite news|last=Burton|first=Lucy|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/11/rupert-murdoch-slashes-value-sun-newspaper-zero/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/11/rupert-murdoch-slashes-value-sun-newspaper-zero/ |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Rupert Murdoch slashes value of the Sun newspaper to zero|work=The Telegraph|date=11 June 2021|access-date=12 June 2021}}{{cbignore}} {{subscription required}}

• Sydney Jacobson (1964–1965, previously editor of the Daily Herald before the name change)
• Dick Dinsdale (1965–1969)
• Larry Lamb (1969–1972)
• Bernard Shrimsley (1972–1975; Lamb was editorial director, supervising both the Sun and News of the World)
• Larry Lamb (1975–1980; Lamb took an enforced six-month sabbatical before being sacked by Murdoch)
• Kelvin MacKenzie (1981–1994)
• Stuart Higgins (1994–1998)
• David Yelland (1998–2003)
• Rebekah Wade (2003–2009)
• Dominic Mohan (2009–2013)
• David Dinsmore (2013–2015)[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23007739 "David Dinsmore replaces Dominic Mohan as Sun editor"]. BBC News. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2018.
• Tony Gallagher (2015–2020)
• Victoria Newton (since 2020)

A Scottish edition of The Sun launched in 1987, known as The Scottish Sun, recognising the distinctiveness of the Scottish media market. Based in Glasgow, it duplicates much of the content of the main edition but with alternative coverage of Scottish news and sport. The launch editor was Jack Irvine who had been recruited from the Daily Record, its main rival in the Scottish tabloid market. By the mid-2000s The Scottish Sun had become the largest-selling newspaper in Scotland, overtaking the Record.

At first the Scottish edition followed the London edition in supporting the Conservatives and Margaret Thatcher, but in 1992 it declared support for Scottish independence. It did not, however, support the pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP). By the time of the 1997 UK general election both the Scottish and London editions were supportive of Labour, led by Tony Blair. This attitude continued throughout the Blair premiership (1997–2007). For instance, during the 2007 Scottish Parliament election the front page featured a hangman's noose in the shape of an SNP logo and stated "Vote SNP today and you put Scotland's head in the noose".{{cite news |first=Iain |last=McWhirter |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2007/may/03/theheatofthescottishsun |title=The heat of the Scottish sun |newspaper=The Guardian |date=3 May 2007 |access-date=3 June 2021}}

The Scottish Sun switched ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, declaring support for the SNP. It took a neutral stance on the referendum on Scottish independence, commenting: "What we cannot do is tell you how we think you should vote".{{cite news|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/sep/17/sun-rupert-murdoch|title=Scottish independence: Murdoch and the Sun pull back from backing yes vote|date=17 September 2014|work=The Guardian|access-date=2 May 2015}} At the 2015 UK general election, The Scottish Sun urged its readers to back the SNP. While in England and Wales, the paper saw a vote for the Conservatives as a means to "stop [the] SNP running the country", the edition north of the border said the SNP would "fight harder for Scotland's interests at Westminster".

The 2019 UK general election saw the paper take a neutral stance stating that it was not backing the party for the first time since 2011 and claiming that 'There is a very real threat of Jeremy Corbyn walking into No10 on Friday and plunging Britain back to the bust ideology of the 1970s — an era of power blackouts and economic misery. The hard-left nationalisation and high-tax agenda of the crackpots who have hijacked Labour is nightmarish... Ms Sturgeon's tawdry flirting with Mr Corbyn — for a shot at securing an "IndyRef2020" that polls show a clear majority of Scots oppose — means we cannot endorse the SNP in the general election.' It again chose not to endorse the SNP at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election,

The Irish edition of the newspaper, based in Dublin, is known as the Irish Sun, with a regional sub-edition for Northern Ireland where it is mastheaded as The Sun, based in Belfast.{{cite web|title=Northern Ireland Sun Twitter account showing covers and mastheads|url=https://twitter.com/TheSun_NI/media|access-date=24 April 2015}}{{Primary source inline|date=December 2017}} The Republic of Ireland edition shares some content – namely glamour and showbiz – with the editions published in Great Britain, but has mainly Irish news and editorial content, as well as sport and advertising. It often views stories in a very different light to those being reported in the UK editions. Editions of the paper in Great Britain described the film The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) as being "designed to drag the reputation of our nation through the mud" and "the most pro-IRA ever";{{cite news|last=Hall|first=Mick|url=http://www.indymedia.ie/article/76396|title=Ken Loach hits back at British tabloids|publisher=Indymedia Ireland|date=1 June 2006}} conversely, the Republic of Ireland edition praised the film and described it as giving "the Brits a tanning".{{cite news|last=Greenslade|first=Roy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2006/jun/06/doublestandardsoverloachmo|title=A classic example of newspaper spin|work=The Guardian |location=UK |date= 6 June 2006| access-date=25 May 2010}}

Unlike its sisters papers in Great Britain, The Irish Sun did not have a designated website until late 2012. An unaffiliated news site with the name Irish Sun has been in operation since mid-2004.{{cite web|title=About Irish Sun|url=http://www.irishsun.com/about|access-date=27 December 2013|website=Irish Sun}} There is also an Irish edition of the Sun on Sunday, the Irish Sun on Sunday, which launched in February 2012.{{cite news| url=https://www.thejournal.ie/roy-keane-and-glenda-gilson-for-new-irish-sun-on-sunday-364243-Feb2012/|date=23 February 2012|title=Roy Keane and Glenda Gilson for new Irish Sun on Sunday|work=The Journal|access-date=6 March 2023}}

Polski Sun was a Polish-language version of the newspaper which ran for six issues in June 2008 during the UEFA Euro 2008 football tournament, on the days of and the days after Poland played matches. Each issue had a circulation of 50,000–75,000, to serve the estimated 600,000 Poles in the United Kingdom at the time.{{cite news|last1=Brook|first1=Stephen|title=The Sun's Polish edition gears up for Euro 2008 debut|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jun/06/sun.pressandpublishing|access-date=20 September 2017|work=The Guardian|date=6 June 2008}}{{cite news|title=The Sun launches issue for Poles|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7441569.stm|access-date=20 September 2017|work=BBC News|date=7 June 2008}}

The U.S. Sun is an online version of The Sun for the United States.{{cite news|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/media/478006-rupert-murdoch-launches-us-sun|title=Rupert Murdoch launches US Sun|first=Joe|last=Concha|work=The Hill|publisher=Capitol Hill Publishing Corp.|location=Washington, D.C.|date=13 January 2020|access-date=17 March 2020}}

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{{Commons category|The Sun (United Kingdom)}}

• {{Official website}}
• [https://www.the-sun.com/ The U.S. Sun]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3654446.stm "Forty Years of the Sun"]. BBC News. 14 September 2004.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041209064340/http://www.nmauk.co.uk/nma/do/live/factsAndFigures?newspaperID=17 "Facts & Figures: The Sun"] (archived). Newspaper Marketing Agency.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060216111120/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1686500,00.html "Wapping: legacy of Rupert's revolution"] (archived). The Observer. 15 January 2006.

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