Newsnight 22 November 1999: Jeffrey Archer sacked

When Jeffrey Archer was chosen as the Conservative candidate for the first election of Mayor of London (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF4-WdVEkO0), many thought it unlikely he would make it to polling day. So it proved when on Sunday 21 November 1999 the News of the World revealed that Archer had tried to get a friend to give him an alibi over a previous 'scrape'.

Archer recognised he had to give up the candidature. Here is a long extract from Newsnight on Monday 22 November 1999 covering the story. First Mark Mardell reports, then Kirsty Wark conducts a roundtable discussion featuring Stephan Shakespeare (an adviser to Jeffrey Archer), Max Hastings (then editor of the Evening Standard), and Michael Crick (biographer of Archer). The Shadow Minister for London, Shaun Woodward, is also interviewed separately - at his request. Later there is a retrospective of Archer's career and previous 'scrapes', and novelist Fay Weldon (a friend of Archer) joins the panel.

Shaun Woodward does not seem to enjoy the role of putting the case for the Conservative Party. Within a fortnight he had been sacked from the front bench, and a fortnight after that he joined the Labour Party.

Видео Newsnight 22 November 1999: Jeffrey Archer sacked канала David Boothroyd