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Phone hacking: News International pays Tessa Jowell £200,000 Ex-Labour cabinet minister gets settlement after police said her phone had been hacked by

Allegra Stratton , political correspondent guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 December 2011 17.23 GMT

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Half of Tessa Jowell's settlement will go direct to a charity in her south London constituency. Photograph: David Levene

The former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted a £200,000 settlement from 's News International over the hacking of her phone.

Jowell's lawyers, Bindmans, confirmed on Monday that the News International subsidiary News Group, which used to publish the News of the World , had agreed to £200,000 in damages for breach of privacy and harassment.

Of this, £100,000 will be paid to a charity of her choice, with which she has worked closely and which will benefit young people in her south London constituency of Dulwich and West Norwood.

Another condition agreed with NI is that she will be given all of the documents relating to the phone-hacking accusations, Bindmans said. Jowell is also thought to have insisted she would disclose full details of the settlement.

Jowell has been told by police that her mobile phone was hacked "wholesale" by the News of the World with officers from Scotland Yard's – the investigation into voicemail interception – telling her that her phone was targeted "very extensively" during the time that her estranged husband, David Mills, was being investigated for his links to the former Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.

Jowell's claim was issued in March, the agreement was finalised with NI last week and will be formalised by the court shortly, according to Bindmans.

"News Group has agreed to pay damages in the sum of £200,000, £100,000 of which will be paid directly to a charity which she has supported for some time. The payment will be registered with the appropriate parliamentary authorities on receipt," the law firm said in a statement.

"She will continue to co-operate fully with the investigation and as a core participant in the Leveson inquiry. Her concern has always been to ensure a

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/12/phone -hacking -news -international -tess ... 12/13/2011 Phone hacking: News International pays Tessa Jowell £200,000 | Media | The Guardian Page 2 of 2

transparent investigation so that the truth about phone hacking should emerge in full and she is confident that will now happen."

Over the weekend, it emerged that her cabinet colleague David Blunkett, a former home secretary, has also accepted a settlement from NI for an undisclosed but "substantial" sum following hacking of his phone.

Blunkett declined to comment on the settlement. A spokeswoman said: "Protecting his private life involves not answering questions which are entirely his business." © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/12/phone -hacking -news -international -tess ... 12/13/2011