The UK government said it would seek to reform the legal regime to crack down on so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps). These lawsuits may be pursued by wealthy companies or individuals in order to deter scrutiny by threatening protracted and expensive legal action.

Journalists and publishers have called the use of Slapps “lawfare”.

Two recent examples of lawfare have prompted ministers to act. Catherine Belton, a former Financial Times journalist, faced five legal cases over her book Putin’s People.

Tom Burgis, who wrote Kleptopia: How Dirty Money Is Conquering the World, faced a lawsuit brought by Kazakh mining group ENRC, which was ultimately dropped.

Dominic Raab is to detail a consultation today on how the government could change English law. Options include reforming the Defamation Act 2013 to improve the “public interest defence”, capping the costs that claimants can recover and bringing in a requirement to prove “actual malice”.

Former cabinet minister David Davis, who has campaigned on this issue, said he thought giving judges the power to dismiss cases earlier in the process was the way forward.

“Most US state judges makes public interest ruling early on, before costs can rise exponentially,” he said. “I hope the government can do that. I would like to see an explicit public interest dimension to this.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “For the oligarchs and super-rich who can afford these sky-high costs the threat of legal action has become a new kind of lawfare. We must put a stop to its chilling effect.”

Mr Raab said: “The government will not tolerate Russian oligarchs and other corrupt elites abusing British courts to muzzle those who shine a light on their wrongdoing.”