It was conceived by the then-owners of Express Newspapers, Trafalgar House, to take on the strength of the Daily Mirror and The Sun in the North.
It was also intended to use the under-capacity of the Great Ancoats Street presses in Manchester as the Daily Express was losing circulation.
The paper has predominantly focused on stories revolving around celebrities, sport, and news/gossip about popular television programs, such as soap operas and reality TV shows, though in recent times has also criticized what it sees as woke culture.
It also claimed it was the last mainstream British tabloid to discontinue the tradition of printing topless images, after The Sun ended its own Page 3 feature in 2015.
However, the newspaper always stood by its story, and on 19 July 2001 Archer was found guilty of perjury and perverting the course of justice at the 1987 trial and was sentenced to a total of four years' imprisonment.
These allegations, along with claims that fans had also attacked police officers aiding the injured, were published in several other newspapers, though it was the content of coverage by The Sun — particularly a front-page article on 19 April — that caused the most controversy.
[12] The Daily Star apologised for printing "stories suggesting the couple were responsible for, or may be responsible for, the death of their daughter Madeleine and for covering it up" and stated that "We now recognise that such a suggestion is absolutely untrue and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance".
[13] On 21 April 2010, in the aftermath of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the Star published a computer-generated image on its front page of British Airways Flight 9, which in 1982 encountered volcanic ash and suffered the temporary loss of all engines.
Prior to the paper's apology, Lawton defended his story on his Facebook page, claiming to be "baffled by the fury of adult gamers", describing them as "grown (?!?)
[18] In March 2011, reporter Richard Peppiatt quit the Daily Star after accusing them of Islamophobic and pro-English Defence League (EDL) coverage: "The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved-in down an alley in Bradford".
[22][23] On July 29, 2016, the paper published an article saying that the MOD spent "183 Million Pounds for a Five Inch Gun" for the Royal Navy.
"[5] Since being taken over by Reach in 2018 and under the editorship of Jon Clark, the publication has taken a more humour-focused direction, with Ian Burrell of the i newspaper describing the publication in 2020 as an "unlikely source of satire" contrasting it with the paper under the prior ownership of Desmond, which he described as a "mostly a sordid product that objectified women and obsessed over reality TV".
Clark described the publication's political position thus: "We have no interest in whether you are a Tory or a Labour supporter but I want our elected leaders to do right by the electorate and they are not, they are lying to us.