On 30 January 1984, a "Panorama" programme, "Maggie's Militant Tendency", was broadcast. The programme made a number of allegations regarding Hamilton's past and more recent activities. These included his attending and giving a fraternal speech in 1972 to the Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) an Italian neo-fascist party led by one of Benito Mussolini's ex-ministers, Giorgio Almirante, Hamilton's membership of the Eldon League, and his involvement with the Powellite faction of the Monday Club and the far-right activist, George Kennedy Young, the former Deputy Director of MI6 and Chairman of the Society for Individual Freedom. The programme also made the claim that Hamilton gave a Nazi salute in Berlin while 'messing around' on a parliamentary visit in August 1983. A Nazi salute is a criminal offence in the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1986, Hamilton and his fellow MP Gerald Howarth (one of his closest friends), sued the BBC for libel along with Phil Pedley, a former chairman of the National Young Conservatives, who had appeared on the programme. "The Guardian" newspaper highlighted Hamilton's admission in "The Sunday Times" in an article he wrote after the court case that he did give "a little salute with two fingers to his nose to give the impression of a toothbrush moustache."