In 1999 the News of the World offered Lloyd Evans £5,000 to destroy Boris Johnson’s career. Here’s the story…
Now it can be told. A couple of months ago — following the stitch-up by the News of the World of Lawrence Dallaglio and the 10th Earl of Hardwicke (to name but two of the paper’s victims this year) — The Spectator decided to offer the bestselling Sunday tabloid a series of increasingly preposterous stories. The editor, Boris Johnson, called me in to act as stooge. My mission: (1), to examine the claim of the News of the World that it acts only in the public interest, and (2), to tempt it with scandalous gossip whose exposure couldn’t conceivably lead to the moral improvement of society.
When Gary Glitter was convicted on child porn charges last week and trudged off to the nick in his Bacofoil boiler-suit I got a call from the editor.
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