Prince Harry, Elton John and five other high-profile British figures can have their lawsuit against the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper alleging widespread unlawful behaviour heard at trial, the High Court in London has ruled.

Publisher Associated Newspapers (ANL) had sought at hearings in March to have the case thrown out, saying the claims that were brought in October 2022 were outside a six-year time limit for legal action.

The claimants accuse ANL, which publishes the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday, of phone-hacking and other serious privacy breaches dating back 30 years.

ANL has always denied involvement in unlawful practices.

“I consider that each claimant has a real prospect of demonstrating concealment by Associated that was not — and could not with reasonable diligence have been — discovered by the relevant claimant before October 2016,” Judge Matthew Nicklin said in his ruling on Friday.

However, Mr Nicklin ruled the seven claimants could not rely on ledgers recording payments by ANL to private investigators, which were disclosed to a public inquiry into press standards which began in 2011, without first getting the permission of British government ministers.

A subsequent hearing will be held on November 21 to consider the outcome of the ruling.

During the preliminary hearings, some of which the Duke of Sussex and John attended, the claimants’ lawyer David Sherborne said his clients had been put “off the scent” by unequivocal denials made at the 2011 public inquiry by top executives from Associated.

In their submissions, the claimants detailed a series of alleged unlawful activities by Mail journalists or 19 private investigators working for them from 1993 to 2011 and beyond, ranging from tapping their phones and bugging their homes, to obtaining medical records by deception.

Associated’s lawyer said the publisher rejected the claims “in their entirety”.