Andy Webb
Role at the time: Journalist and documentary film-maker, author of “Dianarama,” interviewed on Times Radio
Statement summary
Andy Webb, who worked with Spencer on a book about the 1995 Panorama interview, told Times Radio that Spencer had always struck him as a truth teller and a meticulous note-taker, and said the account of the conversation with Charles had been relayed to him privately years before the memoir was published.
“He came across to me as never anything less than a truth teller. … He’s a ferocious note taker. And indeed, the account of that conversation with King Charles about, you know, Diana will soon be forgotten — I can say now that that conversation itself had been, you know, relayed to me confidentially, and I’m sure not only me over the years.”
Why we used this label
On Webb supports the accuracy of Spencer’s account, which places him at the opposite pole from the Palace, Arbiter, Payne and Hardman. His contribution is corroborative rather than a criticism of Charles in his own voice: he vouches for Spencer’s reliability and, more materially, says the account was circulating privately long before publication, which bears on whether it was produced for the book. It is labelled condemns for consistency with how this case treats assertions of the account, and the rationale records that his evidence is provenance rather than first-hand knowledge of the call.