Jeffrey Archer and Kevin Keegan among 44 celebrities settling phone hacking claims with Mirror Group Newspapers

Celebrities including Lord Jeffrey Archer, footballer Kevin Keegan and former home secretary Charles Clarke have received damages and an apology from a leading newspaper over phone hacking.

Mirror Group Newspapers settled claims with 44 individuals at London’s High Court on Tuesday.

None of the well-known names involved - which also included Patsy Kensit, Jo Wood, the ex-wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, actress Gillian Taylforth and a number of TV soap stars – attended court.

It took more than two hours for the agreed statements settling their actions for misuse of private information to be read out to Mr Justice Mann.

As well as the damages sums, which were not made public, MGN offered its apologies in each case.

It is understood some of the settlements exceed the £260,250 record damages awarded to actress and businesswoman Sadie Frost following a High Court trial in 2015 - and that around 50 claims are still in the pipeline.

Solicitor Gerald Shamash told the court the activities were extremely damaging for Lord Archer and Dame Mary Archer and it was accepted that "significant damage and distress" was caused to them and their family.

Mr Keegan's solicitor John Newell said in a statement: "Discovering that his private communications with his family, friends and associates had been unlawfully accessed was a devastating intrusion."

Counsel David Sherborne said the activities of MGN were a source of "enormous stress" for Mr Clarke and his family and caused them to "drastically adapt" their way of life.

Patsy Kensit's solicitor Callum Galbraith said: "MGN's actions were wrong and caused unnecessary distress and tension at already difficult times for the claimant, such as the breakdown of her and Liam Gallagher's marriage, the cancellation of her wedding to Jeremy Healy, and health scares suffered by her and her young son."

In December, Trinity Mirror announced: "We have made good progress on settling civil claims arising from phone-hacking with damages for over 80 per cent of claims now settled.

"However, to maintain momentum in bringing the process to a conclusion it is clear that costs, in particular the claimants' legal costs, will be higher and this has caused us to increase the provision for dealing with these historic matters by £11.5 million.

"Including this increase the provision remaining at the end of this year is expected to be around £22 million.

"Although there still remains uncertainty as to how these matters will progress, the Board remains confident that the exposures arising from these historic events are manageable and do not undermine the delivery of the Group's strategy.

It has been reported the total put aside to pay damages and legal costs relating to hacking is £52.5 million.

Additional reporting by Press Association.