ITV to pay £125,000 over McAlpine gaffe

Published on 23/11/2012 03:33

Lord McAlpine reached a £125,000 settlement with ITV and This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield yesterday as his lawyers confirmed they would continue to seek damages from people who wrongly named him as a paedophile on Twitter.

In a joint statement with Schofield, ITV said it had agreed to settle the peer’s libel claim in relation to the 8 November broadcast.

Controversy was ignited during the weekday show when Schofield brandished a list of names of alleged abusers that he had found on the internet and handed it to Prime Minister David Cameron during a live interview, asking if he would investigate, and inadvertently showing names to viewers. It is not known whether Schofield will pay any of the bill.

The agreement with ITV comes a week after Lord McAlpine, 70, a key figure in Margaret Thatcher’s Tory party, reached a £185,000 settlement with the BBC.