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July 18, 2012updated 14 Sep 2012 3:48pm

Gilligan wins court apology over Livingstone ‘falsehoods’

By Dominic Ponsford

London editor of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph Andrew Gilligan has won an apology from former London major Ken Livingstone after he implied that the journalist was sacked by the Evening Standard.

In his autobiography, You Can't Say That, Livingstone claimed Gilligan was 'shown the door'by h the London Evening Standard, after writing 'lies'about the allocation of grants by Livingstone's administration and his former race adviser, Lee Jasper.

Livingstone also claimed that the Standard had repudiated Gilligan's stories in editorials which 'said there had been no corruption or cronyism at City Hall."

Gilligan's lawers, Andrew Price Solicitors and Advocates, said today: 'The true position, as confirmed in the court statement this afternoon, is that Mr Gilligan chose to leave the Standard of his own volition to join the Telegraph. No such editorials were published by the Standard and Mr Gilligan's articles remain accessible on its website.

'Mr Livingstone's publisher, Faber & Faber Ltd, has today apologised to Mr Gilligan for the falsehoods and agreed to make further redress, the terms of which by agreement will remain confidential. Faber has amended the paperback editions of the book."

Gilligan said: 'Mr Livingstone has never been able to challenge a single specific fact in these stories, which exposed subjects of clear public interest and won the top award in British print journalism. I am pleased that the true position in relation to these false allegations has now been accepted. I hope this makes it clear to Mr Livingstone and to anyone tempted to follow his example that I will always defend my journalism."

Gilligan was named journalist of the year at the 2008 British Press Awards largely in recognition of his work investigating the former London major.

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The judges praised him for a 'relentless investigative journalism at its best from a man who has put himself back in the headlines for all the right reasons".

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