Main Index to all Sections

Section Three Index:
The Guardian's liars and their lies

Scott Trust trustee and former editor of The Guardian, Peter Preston

Former Guardian editor PETER PRESTON has always claimed that it was Fayed, who, out of duty and on his own initiative, 'revealed' to The Guardian that his lobbyist Ian Greer had corrupted Tory MPs.  Preston claims that Fayed's 'allegations' about his lobbyist had surprised him and had led to The Guardian undertaking an investigation into Ian Greer's lobbying methods.  This claim of Preston's is contrary to substantial evidence showing that The Guardian had harboured suspicions about Ian Greer for years, and that The Guardian's investigations into Greer had actually been prompted by longstanding oft-repeated suspicions about Greer that had been aired again during a Commons debate on lobbying held two weeks earlier during the evening of 28 June 1993.
    In support of his version Preston has stated consistently that during his first meeting with Fayed in July 1993 Fayed had shown him the hotel bill from Neil Hamilton's stay at the Paris Ritz in Sept. 1987.  The significance of Fayed having the 6 year-old bill to hand is that it proves, supposedly, that Fayed had developed a prior intention to make disclosures during the meeting - i.e. that it was Fayed who had done the running and The Guardian who had merely reported Fayed's 'cash for questions' allegations. 
    However Hunt & Keith-Hill's investigation uncovered a letter written by Preston to Fayed the day after this meeting, in which Preston a) thanks Fayed for his help with The Guardian's investigations and b) asks him for sight of documentary evidence such as Hamilton's hotel bill.  This proves that a) The Guardian's investigations had already begun prior to the meeting, not begun as a consequence of what Fayed said during the meeting; and proves that b) Fayed did not have the bill to hand during the meeting at all.
    The deliberateness with which Peter Preston lied about these two otherwise innocuous aspects shows that it was not Fayed who had actively blown the whistle on Greer, as The Guardian claims, but rather that it was Peter Preston who had approached Fayed for information to nail Greer - which tallies exactly with The Guardian's longstanding suspicions about the lobbyist and the outburst against Greer during the Commons debate of 28 June.

'In late June or early July 1993, I contacted Mr Al-Fayed and then went to see him in July, at Harrods. This was a "one to one" meeting.  This was the first time I had met Mr Al-Fayed...
...Mr Al-Fayed then told me that Neil Hamilton had stayed at his Paris hotel, the Ritz, for a period of a week in 1987.  I was shown details of Neil Hamilton's Ritz bill but was not given a copy of it.'

Extract from Peter Preston's witness statement, dated 26 June 1995, in defence of Ian Greer & Neil Hamilton's libel actions.  The significance of Fayed having the bill to hand at Preston's first meeting with Fayed is that it establishes, supposedly, that Fayed had made his allegations against Ian Greer and Neil Hamilton proactively and that Preston had merely responded.

"I was being told both things but remember you are very anxious to find documentary proof of all this as I understand it, and I can quite understand the reasons why, but at that stage I only had one small sliver of documentary proof which was the Ritz bill from Mr Hamilton's stay which Mr Al Fayed had shown to me although not allowed us to make use of or take away.."

Extract from the transcript of Peter Preston's oral evidence to the Downey Inquiry, dated 10 February 1997.  Once again, Preston states that Fayed had shown him a copy of Hamilton's Ritz hotel bill at their first meeting, thus reasserting The Guardian's claim that Fayed had been minded to make allegations against Neil Hamilton and Ian Greer at the meeting, and that Preston had merely responded.

Thank you for last night's meeting.  It was both heartening and fascinating to have your help in an investigation which progressively reveals so much that is rotten at the heart of British public life... 
    However, as I explained last night, we are closest to having stories in printable form in the area of Ian Greer Associates and shall shortly be approaching some of the MPs involved to put relevant matters to them.  Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton will certainly be on that list and it would be of the greatest benefit if you could at least let me see, in confidence, any of the documentation from your dealings with them.  The Hamilton hotel bill, for example, sounded precisely the kind of documentation most likely to provoke answers which are needed.

Taken from Peter Preston's letter of thanks to Fayed dated 15 July 1993, which Preston wrote following his first meeting with Fayed the previous evening.
    This letter establishes a number of important truths.  Firstly, and crucially, that The Guardian's investigations into Ian Greer Associates were already under way before Preston met Fayed.  This reveals as a lie The Guardian's claim that its investigations into Ian Greer had begun as a direct consequence of allegations made by Fayed during their meeting. 
    Secondly, and similarly, that Fayed did not have Hamilton's Ritz bill to hand at their first meeting as Preston claimed, for in his letter, written after the meeting, Preston asked Fayed if he could 'at least' let him see it. 
    Thirdly, that Tim Smith & Neil Hamilton were not just the only MPs whom Preston was interested in, who had links with Ian Greer.
    (The Guardian and its lawyers withheld Preston's letter from Ian Greer & Neil Hamilton's solicitors in defiance of a court order for Discovery dated June 1995.)

(Comment: Once again Preston is shown to have lied in a signed witness statement and in his oral testimony to the Downey Inquiry on a matter of crucial significance.)

Previous lie

Next lie