Guppy: Why I wanted tabloid journo beaten up

One of the most infamous members of the Bullingdon Club - the Oxford University drinking society of which Boris Johnson, David Cameron and George Osborne were all members during their undergraduate days - has broken his silence about a conspiracy to beat up a News of the World journalist.

Darius Guppy, who once spent three years in jail for his part in a £1.8m insurance scam, asked his friend Boris Johnson in 1990 to help him track down the Sunday tabloid reporter who had been making persistent inquiries about Guppy's personal life.

Audio tapes emerged last year of the phone conversation in which Guppy made his request. The tapes showed that Johnson, who at the time was a young Daily Telegraph journalist, agreed reluctantly to make inquiries on his old friend's behalf.

But in typically bumbling Boris style - which on this occasion served him well - the one-day London mayor never did manage to find the reporter's address and, in public, has distanced himself from Guppy ever since.

Visited at his new home in Cape Town by the Sunday Telegraph, Guppy spoke about the emergence of the tapes.

"Let me be clear," he said, "I didn't want that chap from the News of the World beaten up because he was investigating any criminal allegations.

"I wanted him sorted out because I thought he was looking to smear members of my family, including my wife-to-be [Patricia].

"The only remorse I feel is that I didn't finish the job. I should be given a medal, not brickbats," he added, apparently breaking into laughter.

Although Boris Johnson let him down, Guppy, who has fallen out with some of his old friends, most famously Earl Spencer whom he accused of trying to seduce Patricia, singled out the London Mayor for praise.

"Boris is the one person I view apart from the rest and not simply because he was my great friend. I knew and loved him not because of his funny side ­ quite the contrary ­ but because of his serious side.

"It was his intellect rather than his humour that I appreciated, despite all the laughter.

"He had a genuinely open mind and I attribute this to his mixed ethnic and cultural background. I hope he has not changed too much."

Guppy will be pleased to hear that his old friend has changed little. He will also, no doubt, be watching from South Africa with keen interest the release this week of a Commons report on press standards and privacy.

The report - the result of a year-long inquiry by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee - is expected to come down hard on the News of the World for its use of illegal phone-hacking. ·