Hugh Grant in row with Sajid Javid over refusing to shake chancellor’s hand
Politician called actor ‘incredibly rude’ for rejecting him at film premiere
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Your support makes all the difference.Hugh Grant has hit back after Sajid Javid called him “incredibly rude” for refusing to shake his hand.
In a recent interview with ES Magazine, the chancellor said he put his hand out to Grant at a premiere of The Irishman and said “lovely to meet you”, but the actor refused to shake it.
Javid said he was “completely shocked” by the rejection, adding: “I wonder if people like Hugh Grant think they are part of the elite and they look down on working class people no matter what station they reach in life.”
The encounter has since been reported in various publications without Grant’s “side of the story”, which the actor has now attempted to rectify with a string of tweets, explaining he did not shake the politician’s hand because he felt Javid was dismissive to press abuse victims.
“I see that @TelegraphNews and @MailOnline have, like the obedient doggies they are, faithfully copied out the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s version of my declining to shake his hand,” said Grant.
“Freely available to them as they wrote was my side of the story from the Press Association wire, which was, in case anyone is interested – ‘But a spokesman for the actor told the PA news agency that Grant had a different version of events.
“When offered a handshake, Grant’s words were, ‘If you don’t mind, I won’t shake your hand because you were rude and dismissive to the victims or press abuse when you met them as culture secretary’.”
Grant has been one of the leading voices in the Hacked Off campaign for stricter press regulation, after being one of the celebrity victims of the phone-hacking scandal.
Javid served as culture secretary for just over a year in 2014 and 2015. He then became home secretary before being appointed chancellor in July 2019.
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