BBC pays Lady Falkender £75,000 Over 'Lavender List' Slurs

Lady Falkender - who as Marcia Williams was Prime Minister Harold Wilson's personal and political secretary - has won £75,000 in libel damages from the BBC following last year's docu-drama, The Lavender List.

The programme claimed - wrongly - that it was Lady Falkender, rather than the Prime Minister himself, who compiled Lord Wilson's Resignation Honours List in 1976 and that, in doing so, she included the names of individuals who had assisted her personally or from whom she hoped to receive assistance personally in future.  It also suggested - again wrongly - that Lady Falkender had had a brief adulterous affair with Lord Wilson and had subsequently used this to blackmail him.

The Lavender List was broadcast on BBC Four on 1 March 2006.  It has not, however, appeared on terrestrial television and will now never do so, since, under the terms of settlement, the BBC has agreed that the programme will never be re-broadcast. 

Speaking of the settlement, Lady Falkender said:

"I am very glad that matters have been resolved satisfactorily.  A lot of nonsense has been written about the 1976 Resignation Honours List - the so called 'Lavender List' - and my claim against the BBC has, I hope, given me an opportunity to nail the lie once and for all.  As Lord Wilson always made clear throughout the period after he left office, and as I have myself always made clear, the 1976 List was his own work and included only those individuals he himself believed ought to be honoured.  My involvement in the preparation of the List was no different to that of any other Political Secretary and the suggestion that I had means at my disposal of imposing my wishes upon Lord Wilson is simply untrue.

The BBC's programme presented a picture which, in a whole host of respects, bore no resemblance whatsoever to the reality of Lord Wilson's final administration."

The settlement of Lady Falkender's claim followed a mediation conducted by Lord Woolf of Barnes, the former Lord Chief Justice. In addition to paying damages and undertaking never to re-broadcast the offending programme, the BBC also apologised to Lady Falkender and agreed to meet her legal costs.

Lady Falkender was represented by a team at Carter-Ruck comprising Cameron Doley, Claire Gill and Hanna Basha.

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