The number of new civil claims for damages over alleged News of the World phone hacking faced by Rupert Murdoch‘s News International has reached nearly 50, including Sir John Major‘s former daughter-in-law Emma Noble, the high court has heard.

Others seeking damages for alleged invasion of privacy from News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary that published the now-closed Sunday tabloid, include former Conservative cabinet minister and chief whip Lord Blencathra and former Fire Brigades‘ Union general secretary Andy Gilchrist.