Prescott blasts 'fop' envoy over book earnings

The future of the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission was thrown into fresh doubt last night after he was subjected to an astonishing attack by the Deputy Prime Minister and told that he should quit.

In a remarkable letter to Sir Christopher Meyer seen by The Observer, John Prescott ridiculed the former ambassador to Washington as a 'red-socked fop' who could no longer continue as an 'honest broker' in charge of regulating the press in Britain.

Prescott's intervention comes a week after the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, suggested Meyer should resign after the frank revelations in his memoirs of his time in Washington.

Prescott also questions what Meyer intends to do with the profits of his book and its newspaper serialisation. Meyer has confirmed that a third of the £250,000 payment from the two newspapers that ran extracts will go to a children's charity his wife is in charge of.

The Observer can reveal that Meyer's wife, Lady Catherine Meyer, earns £34,000 a year from the charity Parents and Abducted Children Together. The rest of the money will go to two other charities.

In his letter to Meyer, Prescott states: 'Money from the [serialisation] deal will be donated to a trust or charity (one closely associated with your family, I understand). But what about the profits you stand to make from book sales generated by the media attention you so deliberately manufactured?'

Meyer has confirmed he will be keeping all the money made by book sales.

Prescott's letter puts the government on a collision course with the man whose job is to impartially regulate the newspaper industry.

Meyer's book, DC Confidential, serialised in the Guardian and the Daily Mail, dismissed several cabinet ministers as 'political pygmies'. He aimed his most scathing assault at Prescott who he described as arriving 'at the embassy... like a mastiff with his hackles up'.

Meyer said that Prescott 'never appeared to be sufficiently up on these [foreign policy] issues and he always seemed nervous'.

In a meeting with a senator Meyer was amused to see Prescott getting 'into a terrible tangle... [talking] about war in the "Balklands" and "Kovosa". The senator, who knew something about military matters, was surprised to hear from the Deputy Prime Minister that British Harriers were bombing from 15ft'.

Now it seems Prescott is determined to get his own back in a letter that pulls no punches.

Prescott said: 'How can I or others criticised in your book, come to the PCC in future and expect impartiality when you have made it quite clear you are anything but? How can you now hope to be an "honest broker" at the PCC if people suspect they may feature in any future literary effort on your part? Furthermore, how can you carry out your obligations to prevent intrusion into peoples' private-lives when you are content to publish tittle-tattle on John Major's underwear?

'These are serious questions, especially when one takes into account that you waited until after you were re-appointed at the PCC before sitting down with the newspapers and negotiating serialisation deals on your book.'

Prescott adds: 'I am alarmed that you are perfectly happy to profit from tittle-tattle, betraying confidences and by character assassination - the kind of behaviour you at the PCC should be protecting the public from.'

Then, in a barbed personal swipe at Meyer, the Deputy Prime Minister refers to his penchant for wearing bright socks and dandy appearance.

He said: 'As far as your reputation in Washington goes, I later learned that many on Capitol Hill referred to you as the 'red-socked fop'. But this of course is tittle-tattle.'

Speaking yesterday Meyer laughed off Prescott's attack saying he would not respond directly to the Deputy Prime Minister and insisting he had no intention of resigning.

He said: 'There is work to be done on the PCC. I have enjoyed my two-and-a-half years. I am pleased that my contract has been renewed for a further three years. I am confident I can continue to do this job independently and impartially and effectively.'

The former ambassador earns more than £155,000 a year from his three-day-a-week job as chair of the PCC.

He also has a string of corporate directorships including a boardroom job with and shares in GKN, a British firm that supplies components for US fighter bombers, Black Hawk helicopters and Humvee vehicles used by American forces in Iraq.

Stock Exchange documents show that Meyer spent more than £5,000 buying 2,500 shares in the firm last November. He paid £2.27 for the shares the value of which have leapt by almost 30 per cent and are now worth £2.92.

Mike Lewis of the Campaign Against Arms Trade said: 'Those safeguarding the public interest need to be absolutely free from personal conflicts of interest. It's difficult to see how Christopher Meyer can be an impartial press watchdog while retaining a major financial interest in one of Britain's largest arms companies, often the subject of controversial media scrutiny.

'It's even more alarming that a leading diplomatic cheerleader for the Iraq war should go straight into employment with a company whose equipment is used in fighting that war.'

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