Over libelous tweet

Alan Davies has apologised to Lord McAlpine for falsely linking him to abuse at a children's home.

His personal apology comes after the Tory peer threatened to sue anyone who had circulated his name on Twitter.

McAlpine went public to defend his name after it appeared widely online in connection with the BBC’s flawed Newsnight report alleging a senior political figure was involved in historic abuse in North Wales.

On the day of the broadcast, Davies tweeted: ‘Any clues as to who this Tory paedophile is...?’

He then retweeted to his 440,0000 followers a post saying: ‘Lord mcalpine, some would say.’

The QI regular returned to Twitter today to reveal that he had said sorry. He tweeted: ‘I've just written to Lord McAlpine to apologise for retweeting his name in relation to false allegations following a BBC investigatio

Lawyers for McAlpine are said to have found 1,000 original tweets and a further 9,000 retweets which they will take libel action against – even if it is just for a nominal amount which he will donate to charity.

But he is said to want to take more serious action against the most prominent tweeters who named him, including Sally Bercow – the wife of the Commons Speaker.

The BBC last week agreed to pay McAlpine £185,000 in an out-of-court settlement; while he is said to be close to a deal with ITV over Phillip Schofield's blunder that linked several Conservative politicians to the allegations.

Published: 19 Nov 2012