Martin Bashir blamed his ‘non-white’ status at the BBC for the scandal over his Diana interview, documents revealed last night.

The former star reporter claimed racism led to the ‘professional jealousy’ he suggested was behind the row over the Panorama scoop in which the princess famously declared ‘there are three of us in this marriage’.

Bashir claimed in a 2020 email released yesterday that there was ‘irritation’ at the BBC that ‘a second-generation immigrant of non-white working-class roots should have the temerity to enter a royal palace’.

He said ‘it would have been so much easier’ if one of the ‘dynastic’ Dimbleby brothers had carried out the 1995 interview with the troubled princess.

The BBC was plunged into a cover-up crisis last night as it finally released a dossier of internal Bashir emails covered in censor’s black ink.

Campaigners including Diana’s brother Earl Spencer believe the redacted passages mean the broadcaster is hiding potentially explosive revelations. It has been accused of hushing up what executives knew about Bashir’s disgraceful conduct in securing his famous interview.

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Princess Diana during her controversial interview with Martin Bashir for the BBC in 1995

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Bashir claimed in an email released yesterday there was ‘irritation’ that ‘a second-generation immigrant of non-white working-class roots should have the temerity to enter a royal palace’

The BBC has blown more than £200,000 on a legal battle to keep the dossier under wraps – fighting for two-and-a-half years against a Freedom of Information request from journalist and film-maker Andy Webb.

The corporation insisted to Judge Brian Kennedy KC the emails were simply ‘irrelevant’. But after this excuse was thrown out by the judge – who ordered the documents be made public and lambasted the BBC’s ‘inconsistent, erroneous and unreliable’ handling of Mr Webb’s request – the broadcaster yesterday belatedly handed over the files. Yet key passages were blotted out in black ink, while dozens of other pages are left entirely blank except for the words ‘withheld in full’. The BBC argued that it had a duty to protect what it called ‘personal information’.

But Mr Webb said: ‘I’m astonished that the BBC assured Judge Kennedy that all this material is ‘irrelevant’. A simple glance tells you that is not true.

‘With literally thousands of redactions, it’s impossible to determine at this point who said what to whom. But I’m sure that will emerge in time.

‘And the release of the material by the BBC has been completely chaotic. Whether that’s cock-up or conspiracy, who knows.’

Judge Kennedy ruled the BBC had until 5pm yesterday to hand over the cache of documents.

But as the deadline came and went, only a few parts of the dossier were made available. There was confusion behind the scenes as BBC executives were unable to say why the tribunal’s order had not been followed and whether the corporation was at risk of being found in contempt of court. Eventually all files were released.

They included a note sent from Bashir to a BBC historian in July 2020, in which he discussed the situation. Bashir said he believed his ‘non-white’ status had led to jealousy within the BBC.

The tranche of internal emails are from a three-month period in autumn 2020 when the BBC under director-general Tim Davie was firefighting the Bashir crisis.

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Pictured: The Prince and Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace after their wedding at Westminster Abbey on July 29, 1981

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The Daily Mail’s front page the day after Princess Diana’s shocking Panorama interview

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It was during the interview the princess sensationally said ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’ (Pictured: Daily Mail coverage, November 21, 1995)

In October that year, the Mail revealed shocking details of how Bashir had lied and forged his way to clinch his 1995 Panorama interview with the princess. Viewed by 23million people, it was hailed as the scoop of a generation. But Bashir had spun a web of deceit to trick Diana and her brother with preposterous smears about senior royals to gain her trust.

He used forged bank statements and lied that MI6 had recorded Prince Charles planning the ‘end game’, and that Prince William’s watch had been bugged, all designed to draw the vulnerable princess into his confidence.

The full extent of Bashir’s skulduggery came to light only when the BBC was forced to release a 67-page dossier of memos and minutes from 1995 and 1996, after a request from Mr Webb. But Mr Webb believed the BBC had still not released all of its incriminating evidence and made more requests for files.

At the time of the BBC’s Bashir crisis in 2020, it insisted it was unable to quiz its journalist about the scandal because of his ill health, yet emails subsequently showed that executives were in daily contact with him.

Last night the BBC said: ‘Throughout this process we have taken our responsibilities to comply with the directions of the tribunal extremely seriously.

‘Therefore we’ve today released approximately 3,000 documents – some 10,000 pages – to Mr Webb. This latest disclosure includes many hundreds of pages of duplicates and material that was not related to the 1995 Panorama, but was nevertheless caught by the electronic searches.

‘We have made redactions, where necessary, consistent with the Freedom of Information Act. There is nothing to support the allegations that the BBC acted in bad faith in 2020 and we maintain this suggestion is simply wrong.

‘We have worked to provide relevant material throughout this lengthy process, which has involved extensive archive and record searches spanning nearly 30 years. We have also accepted and apologised when errors have been made and taken extensive steps to rectify those errors.

‘The BBC commissioned Lord Dyson to conduct an independent investigation so he could gain a full picture of what happened in 1995 – including by obtaining any additional materials people other than the BBC might possess.’

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Pictured: Prince Charles, Princess Diana and their children watch veterans as they march past on a dais on The Mall as part of the commemorations of VJ Day in August 1995

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Martin Bashir was found to have shown Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, false bank statements to gain access to the family

‘The BBC provided all relevant documentation that was in the BBC’s possession to the Lord Dyson inquiry. Other individuals involved in these events also supplied Lord Dyson with written materials, which are detailed in the report. This was published in 2021 and the findings accepted in full by the BBC.’

On the deadline issue, a spokesman said: ‘The process to transfer this material began well before the deadline and the files were transferred as soon as possible.’

Additional reporting: VANESSA ALLEN and INDERDEEP BAINS