MPs plead to coroner to stop Diana 'circus'

Senior MPs on Thursday urged the judge hearing the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and her lover Dodi al-Fayed in a Paris car crash to bring the "circus" to a halt.

They expressed concern after up to 10 members of the secret service were summoned to give evidence next week before Lord Justice Scott Baker at the inquest, which has so far cost six million pounds.

"I think it's a total waste of time and money," said former Labour minister George Foulkes, a MP's committee which oversees the work of the intelligence agencies.

Dodi's father, luxury storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed, says his son and Diana were killed by British security services on the orders of Prince Philip.

Fayed has said her killing was ordered because the royal family did not want the mother of the future king to have a child with his son, and that Diana's body was embalmed to cover up evidence she was expecting a baby.

Al-Fayed peppered his testimony to the inquest on Monday with allegations, accusing everyone from former Prime Minister Tony Blair to Diana's sister Sarah, from the French embalmers of Diana's body to the Paris ambulance drivers of being involved.

Foulkes told The Times: "The extraordinary performance of Fayed has turned the whole thing into a circus. I think the coroner should now seriously consider stopping the inquest."

His plea was echoed by Labour MP Dari Taylor who told the paper: "It is going far too far."

"We understand Mr Fayed's grief. But the fact is that he has got to accept at some stage that there was nobody involved in his son's and Princess Diana's death. It was an accident."

Former Labour Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane said: "This is not only a farce, it is a contemptible abuse of British law and a scandalous waste of public money."

Former spy chief Richard Dearlove appeared at the inquest on Wednesday to rebut al-Fayed's allegations as "utterly ridiculous".

The identities of the Secret Intelligence Service members who are due to appear at the inquest next week will not be revealed.

The court will be cleared of the media and public when they give evidence, which will be piped by audio link to an annex.