The news of Jeffrey Archer’s death reminded me of the scandal in the late 1980s, when he denied newspaper reports that he had visited a prostitute in London. He sued the Daily Star for libel and won £500,000 in damages. More than a decade later, while he was campaigning to become Mayor of London, it emerged that his alibi had been fabricated. He was subsequently convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice, and sentenced to four years in prison.
It made me wonder: if he had neither admitted nor denied the allegation, declined to discuss his private life and simply moved on, would the scandal eventually have faded? It might still have cost him his political position at the time, but did his determination to clear his name ultimately do far more damage than the original allegation ever could?
