Sir Van Morrison's long-running defamation battle with the former Stormont Health Minister Robin Swann has been settled.

Mr Swann sued the singer for slander after Sir Van declared that the politician was “very dangerous” in front of an audience at Belfast’s Europa Hotel in June 2021.

Sir Van's on-stage criticism of Mr Swann came after his gigs at the hotel were cancelled as part of coronavirus restrictions.

In a separate action, Sir Van sued Mr Swann and the Department of Health over an opinion piece published in Rolling Stone magazine which claimed that some of Sir Van's criticism of lockdown rules had been "actually dangerous".

At the High Court in Belfast on Friday, the judge was told resolutions had been reached in their competing and “potentially very costly” legal cases.

Both actions had been due to get underway at the end of September.

However it was announced that all proceedings have now been settled on confidential terms.

Video footage of Sir Van calling Mr Swann dangerous went viral following the incident in 2021.

At the time, a ban on live music performances had been imposed across Northern Ireland in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Sir Van, a vocal critic of the restrictions, took to the stage in front of a crowd of about 140 people and started chanting about the then health minister.

The then Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Mr Paisley joined Sir Van on stage and also joined in the chant, which he later dismissed as "banter".

But Mr Swann, who is now the MP for South Antrim, took legal action against Sir Van over the chant, as well as a YouTube video and a newspaper interview in which similar assertions were made.