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I did not collude with Martin Bashir for Diana interview, Earl Spencer tells tribunal
Princess' brother gives evidence in freedom of information tribunal regarding the now-infamous Panorama programme
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Earl Spencer has denied conspiring with Martin Bashir to persuade his sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, to take part in his BBC Panorama interview.
He maintains that a previously confidential BBC document claiming that he colluded with Bashir before the 1995 interview was untrue.
Spencer, 59, was giving evidence to an information rights tribunal which is deciding whether internal BBC documents relating to Mr Bashir’s conduct should be released under the Freedom of Information Act.
During Tuesday morning’s hearing he was asked by documentary maker Andy Webb, who is seeking the release of the documents, whether he had conspired with Bashir.
He replied. “No, I did not.”
During the now infamous Panorama interview Diana disclosed “there were three of us in this marriage”, in a pointed reference to her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Queen.
An inquiry by Lord Dyson in 2021 found that Mr Bashir, a relatively junior BBC reporter at the time, had acted in a “deceitful” way in order to secure the interview — faking documents to make the Princess think those close to her were receiving money from tabloid newspapers and that the security services were spying on her.
Spencer told Lord Dyson’s inquiry that he was duped by Mr Bashir into introducing him to Diana.
Scandal first emerged in 2020
At the time of Lord Dyson’s report Prince William, the then Duke of Cambridge, responded by excoriating the BBC’s failures, describing the interview as a “major contribution in making my parents’ relationship worse”.
The Earl dismissed a suggestion made by a senior BBC lawyer, at an earlier hearing of the information rights tribunal, that the claim that he had colluded with Mr Bashir was already in the public domain.
He said: “I do not believe it was. It does not seem likely to me and I can’t think why they [the BBC] would say that.”
The scandal over the Panorama interview first emerged in 2020 after the BBC released a heavily redacted confidential briefing by Lord Hall of Birkenhead — its head of news and later director-general — to the broadcaster’s governors in 1996.
He concluded that “...there had been no question of Mr Bashir trying to mislead or do anything improper…. he was an honest man”.
In his memo Lord Hall suggested that Spencer had given Mr Bashir bank statements belonging to his former head of security.
But it later emerged that these were altered by Mr Bashir to falsely suggest Diana’s aides were being paid by the tabloid press, in order to feed her paranoia.
The Earl raised concerns with the BBC 17 years ago
Lord Hall’s briefing document from 1996 was released to Mr Webb, who was making a documentary for the 25th anniversary of the interview.
Mr Webb subsequently went to the information rights tribunal in an attempt to obtain the release of further documents that he believes contain evidence of how the BBC tried to cover up the scandal.
The Earl, who backs Mr Webb’s request, wants the BBC’s internal documents about Mr Bashir to be released by the broadcaster in order to prove that he did not collude with him.
He told the tribunal that he had contacted the BBC 17 years ago to raise his own concerns over the way the interview with his sister had been obtained, but said that “nothing happened”.
‘Errors made in good faith’
When the tribunal resumed on Tuesday afternoon it heard that Mr Webb and the BBC have agreed for the documentary maker to see a sample of documents as a compromise, after he initially complained the broadcaster had failed to release more than 3,000 emails related to its handling of the scandal.
But in his closing speech Mr Webb said he continued to question whether the BBC had “unashamedly” released documents for “what they would say is good stuff... and withholding what they would say is bad stuff.”
He added: “So I submitted an FOI request which is why we are here today.”
Mr Webb told the tribunal he believed the actions of BBC executives were to “give this 1996 cover-up a new lease of life” and to make sure “Martin Bashir would never be brought to book”.
The BBC apologised at the tribunal for “errors” in its handling of disclosure relating to Mr Bashir’s interview with Diana.
Jason Pobjoy, the barrister representing the BBC, said the broadcaster had written to the tribunal accepting that the claim that Spencer colluded with Bashir was not in the public domain before it released Hall’s briefing.
In his closing speech, Mr Pobjoy said: “The BBC does accept and has accepted that mistakes were made in this case — particularly in dealing with the initial request.
“I want to apologise again on behalf of the BBC for these errors. Notwithstanding these mistakes, the BBC’s position is that they were mistakes but in good faith.”