Sir Perry wins Black vote

Sir Peregrine Worsthorne, who was sacked from the Sunday Telegraph earlier this month after 44 years at Telegraph newspapers, is to transfer his talents to the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator.

The action follows concern expressed by Conrad Black, the owner of all three titles, after Mr Worsthorne, 73, was dropped from his column without warning by the editor, Dominic Lawson, who wanted a new writer. "Dominic simply came back and said he didn't want me," Sir Peregrine reported after he opened his letter of dismissal. "I am appalled." He is now to pen a monthly "Peregrine Worsthorne Essay" in the Daily Telegraph and a bi-monthly column for the Spectator.

Yesterday the magazine's editor, Frank Johnson, rejected suggestions that the jobs had been given to the veteran former editor under pressure from their proprietor.

"Not at all. It would have happened anyway," he said.