claimant

He has been pressing ministers to consider giving younger care leavers the same rate of Universal Credit received by those over 25, pointing out they would have the same obligations an older claimant.

"The claimants have not established that such relief is needed now, or why the usual pre-trial procedures should not be observed," he said.

He said the claimants had spent almost £150m on the legal battle, and were seeking nearly £113m of their costs from Mr Lynch's estate.

Mr Marks said he apologised to thousands of claimants who stopped receiving funds because of this "streamlining".

He also said in the documents that the anonymous claimant did not believe that the recipient of his messages was called Maria Joseph.