The Daily Mail and Channel 4 News have uncovered a “racist” UK political pamphlet from 1961 which bears press reform campaigner Max Mosley’s name as a publisher.
The pamphlet, partially reproduced in the Mail today, warns British voters that “coloured immigration threatens your children’s health”.
The Mail’s front page today asks: “Did F1 Tycoon Lie to Orgy Trial?” alongside 11 pages of coverage and a leader column on the former motor racing boss, with more planned tomorrow.
Approached by the Mail for comment, Mosley said that “none of these obviously slanted questions are relevant today” and “like the Daily Mail my political views have changed since the early 1960s”.
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But, the former motor racing boss was forced to answer tough questions over the pamphlet in a one-on-one interview with Cathy Newman on Channel 4 News last night.
Mosley denied that he perjured himself at the High Court in 2008 during a privacy case against the News of the World over its story exposing his involvement in an orgy with paid dominatrices.
Mosley denied in court that the leaflet existed and called on prosecutors to produce it, which they could not do. He went on to win £60,000 in privacy damages.
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Asked outright whether he had perjured himself in court, Mosley replied: “This is an offensive question. I said that I denied that leaflet. I challenged the leading counsel to produce it.”
He added: “Perjury is saying something you think is untrue – you know is untrue. I said something which I knew in my own mind was true. There’s no question of perjury, it’s a really stupid and offensive question to ask that.”
Faced with quotes from the leaflet, which Mosley at times said he doubted was genuine, the millionaire said: “I think that probably is racist, I would concede that completely.”
He added: “This was a statement in a leaflet, which I’m not even sure is genuine, which would never reflect my view – it wouldn’t reflect my view then or now, because I simply wouldn’t dream of insulting people.”
The previously unseen leaflet’s publication comes after Mosley threatened legal action against the Daily Mail, the Times, the Sun, and the Mirror under the Data Protection Act.
He claims the papers’ use of his “sensitive personal data” in articles – including assertions that he took part in an orgy, that he directly funds alternative press watchdog Impress and allegations that he is racist (denied by Mosley) – is a breach of principles enshrined in the act.
The Daily Mail said the legal action was a “chilling attack on press freedom” while the Times used a leader column to say that the Data Protection Act was “not passed to muzzle the press”.
Mosley told Newman during the interview, which at one stage saw the presenter ask him to take a call later when he brought a phone out of his pocket, that the pamphlet was a “red herring, put out by the Daily Mail”.
He said: “Assuming it is true, that does not reflect my view absolutely and this was 56 years ago and it’s an attempt by the Daily Mail to distract from what the real issue is, which is whether they are breaching the Data Protection Act.”
He later added: “If you want to do an investigation, investigate the phone hacking, computer hacking, abuse of people like the Dowlers, the McCanns – why not do that?”
Confronting Mosley over his legal action against the newspapers under the Data Protection Act, Newman asked if he was “battling” them “to erase your past, because you haven’t fully owned up to your past?”
He replied: “Obviously not, because I didn’t even know the leaflet existed when I had the News of the World case.”
Mosley has previously paid £500,000 to deputy Labour leader Tom Watson, who supports reforms on the press in his role as Shadow Culture Secretary.
Asked if he was a “fit and proper person” to be funding the office of the deputy Labour leader, Mosley said: “Absolutely. Why should I not support Tom Watson, who is probably one of the most honest and courageous politicians we have got?”
He also said that he would “absolutely” give Watson more money in future.
Watson defended Mosley in a statement to the Mail, saying he was “proud to call Mr Mosley a friend”.
He added: “My views on Press regulation are well known and have not changed. The views expressed by Max as a young man are not the views he holds now, just as the [Daily Mail-owning] Rothermere family no longer uses its newspapers to support fascism.’
The Mail has said it will hand its dossier over to the Crown Prosecution Service and Watson.
Picture: Channel 4 News/Screenshot
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