Tessa Jowell Accepts £200,000 In Damages From News International

Tessa Jowell Money

First Posted: 12/12/11 16:48 GMT Updated: 12/12/11 17:57 GMT   PA

Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted £200,000 in damages after her phone was targeted by the News of the World.

The Labour MP's lawyers said News Group Newspapers had agreed to pay £100,000 of the settlement direct to a charity of her choice.

Solicitor Tamsin Allen, of Bindmans LLP, said the terms included "an ongoing obligation to disclose documents".

"News Group has agreed to pay damages in the sum of £200,000, £100,000 of which will be paid directly to a charity which she has supported for some time," Ms Allen said.

"The payment will be registered with the appropriate parliamentary authorities on receipt. She will continue to co-operate fully with the Metropolitan Police investigation and as a core participant in the Leveson Inquiry.

"Her concern has always been to ensure a transparent investigation so that the truth about phone-hacking should emerge in full and she is confident that will now happen."

The substantial settlement for breach of privacy and harassment was announced after police told Ms Jowell her mobile phone had been hacked "wholesale". It is expected to be formalised by the courts shortly.

Ms Jowell's phone was apparently targeted in 2006 when her estranged husband, David Mills, was mired in controversy over his links to former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The ex-Olympics minister - now shadowing the brief - told the Independent she had received an apology from Rupert Murdoch's News International.

"I was very extensively hacked - 'wholesale', as it was put to me," she said. "It was quite clear it was wholesale as there were things no one else should have known. It makes you feel like you're going mad. It made me feel like I couldn't trust anyone at the time."

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Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted £200,000 in damages after her phone was targeted by the News of the World. The Labour MP's lawyers said News Group Newspapers had agreed to pay...
Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted £200,000 in damages after her phone was targeted by the News of the World. The Labour MP's lawyers said News Group Newspapers had agreed to pay...
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11:58 AM on 12/13/2011
nice xmas bonus tessa
11:55 AM on 12/13/2011
please please notw,hack my phone,bet tessa was over the moon with her windfall
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
minimemo
Can I be your friend...if they let me out...
11:28 AM on 12/13/2011
"It made me feel like I couldn't trust anyone at the time." So, does that mean us voters will get compensation from the MP's whom are 'wholesale' untrustworthy as The News of The World!!
09:54 AM on 12/13/2011
No doubt she will give it all to charities as she can live very comfortably on the money and expenses she gets paid or steals from us. And pigs may fly.
07:45 AM on 12/13/2011
¬"$£ &*__ _-== Y_%$ $£"&.
10:40 PM on 12/12/2011
Wish they'd have hacked my phone.......£200,000.00 and tax free I presume?
09:27 PM on 12/12/2011
Ms Jowell is unique as an MP- the only one to leave her family to spend more time with Parliament - and a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi - clearly a woman of integrity !!!!!!!!
10:10 PM on 12/12/2011
Nice one Ronnie
08:41 PM on 12/12/2011
I'm getting a phone, better chances than the lottery.
04:59 PM on 12/12/2011
Quote -- " Former Cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted £200,000 in damages after her phone was targeted by the News of the World."
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Can the payment of damages wipe away the illegality? Can money paid to victims make the "problem" go away?

This seems like spying on an industrial scale. It seems the police and politicians all looked the other way. That needs to be investigated. What were the connections between the police, politicians, the media and the wealthy?
06:58 PM on 12/12/2011
I'd be all for dealing with the whole mess...and I wouldn't turn the 100k down whilst doing it!

:-)