Police ‘bizarrely reluctant’ to look at Martin Bashir case, says Earl Spencer

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Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer said he has asked Scotland Yard to look into fake documents used by Martin Bashir in the process of securing his infamous Panorama interview on two occasions.

A scathing report by Lord Dyson last month concluded that the BBC covered up “deceitful behaviour” used by Mr Bashir to secure his headline-making 1995 interview with the princess.

Asked on LBC if he thought it should be a matter for the police, Earl Spencer said: “I have tried; I have referred this twice to Metropolitan Police, they seem bizarrely reluctant to take it further.

“If you went into any situation with fake bank statements and profited from it, you wouldn’t expect to get off scot-free and nor would I. This seems a very odd case indeed.”

Diana’s brother insisted he did not have a personal “crusade” against Mr Bahir and offered scathing criticism of the BBC – saying he hoped “there is some shame going on” among senior figures who had worked for the corporation.

Earlier this week an internal review into the BBC’s decision to re-hire Mr Bashir in 2016 found that the theory that the journalist was re-employed to cover up events surrounding the interview was “entirely unfounded.”

Earl Spencer responded to the internal report on Twitter, writing: “It won’t end with this, I promise.”

Asked to expand on his remarks on Thursday, Diana’s brother said: “Bashir is Bashir, and there we are, but I do think the BBC has had an enormous amount to answer for.

“I wrote that [tweet] in disbelief when they came up with yet another of their own reports. I don’t think it’s very healthy for an institution to report on itself. They found no connection between Bashir being rehired and his previous known lies and other things.”

He added: “It’s very hard to see how that man is then put forward as religious correspondent a few years later. Why would you choose somebody who you know has caused such trouble? This isn’t a crusade of mine. I just find it unbelievable.”

He said he had been pleased by questions raised by MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee to the BBC’s former director-generals earlier this week, saying: “They asked the right questions and they shone a light where it needed to be shone.

He added: “It made people look very silly, and hopefully there is some shame going on.”

Earl Spencer was also asked about the “very tough” anniversary approaching in a couple of weeks, marking what would have been Diana’s 60th birthday.

“To me, she’ll always be a sister first and so it will be a day for actually joyful reflection on her life, but also pain because it was such a short one.”