Lord McAlpine Settles With BBC For £185,000 Plus Costs

Lord McAlpine Settles With BBC For £185,000
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Lord McAlpine will receive a payment of £185,000 after a settlement was reached with the BBC over false claims made in a Newsnight report, his lawyers have confirmed.

The terms of the agreement will be announced in court in a few days' time, according to RMPI LLP, the solicitors to the former Conservative Party treasurer.

Lord McAlpine said: "I am delighted to have reached a quick and early settlement with the BBC. I have been conscious that any settlement will be paid by the licence fee-payers, and have taken that into account in reaching agreement with the BBC.

"We will now be continuing to seek settlements from other organisations that have published defamatory remarks and individuals who have used Twitter to defame me."

Earlier McAlpines solicitor Andrew Reid told the BBC that ITV's This Morning was the top of a "long list" of those who could be liable to lose "a lot of money" after presenter Phillip Schofield handed prime minister David Cameron a list of alleged paedophiles live on air.

The solicitor also said he had already sent a letter to ITV about Schofield, calling his performance "very, very low." "I'm amazed that it was allowed," he said.

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom said on Thursday that it was investigating the BBC’s Newsnight and ITV’s This Morning over complaints that “generally accepted standards” were breached.

Lord McAlpine has said the suggestion of being a paedophile was the worst thing of which anyone could be accused.

"I don't want to be too dramatic about the thing, but Boris (Johnson) got it right. There is nothing as bad as this that you can do to people," he said.

"Because they are quite rightly figures of public hatred. And suddenly to find yourself a figure of public hatred, unjustifiably, is terrifying."

A BBC spokesman said: "The BBC has agreed terms with Lord McAlpine to settle his claim of libel against the Corporation.

"The settlement is comprehensive and reflects the gravity of the allegations that were wrongly made."