Bunhill: The Archer story that got away

WANT to know the real truth about that Archer story? Well, early on Tuesday morning, Dominic Prince, City editor of the Sunday Express, was phoned by his old friend, the veteran investigative journalist Martin Tomkinson with a red-hot story that involved Lord Archer in an alleged insider dealing scandal - though he didn't specify the company involved.

Prince was confident that the story, which related to a five-month old investigation, would have held till Sunday and told Tomkinson he would be back once he had talked to his editor, Eve Pollard. Unfortunately the only conversation he had with her last week was at 6.10pm on Tuesday evening when the long-serving City editor was told he 'did not fit in with the Express newspapers culture' (whatever that may be). In traditional journalistic fashion Prince 'made his excuses and left'. Tomkinson then took the story to the Times.

But one mystery remains. Would the Sunday Express have run the story? The whole group still bears the scars of the libel action over the alleged Archer sex scandal, which cost the stable mate of the Express, the Daily Star, pounds 500,000 in damages.