Television producer Mr Ted Francis "exposed" his friend Lord Archer over a fake alibi because he wanted to stop him being elected mayor of London, the Old Bailey heard yesterday.
Mr Francis told the publicist Mr Max Clifford he was not interested in money for his story and gave it to the News of the World "for the price of a second hand car".
Lord Archer stood down as the Conservative mayoral candidate in October 1999 when the News of the World published Mr Francis's story.
Mr Clifford told the court: "I explained to Mr Francis that this was a very big story and extremely valuable. He made it clear to me that money was not what this was about.
"He was concerned Jeffrey Archer might become mayor of London and he could not stand by and let that happen.
"I made it clear that the story was worth in the region of £150,000. He made it clear he was not after money." Mr Clifford said he negotiated a deal in which he got £30,000 as commission. Mr Francis received £14,000 with an additional £5,000 going to a charity of his choice.
News of the World reporter Neville Thurlbeck said Mr Francis had agreed to telephone Lord Archer and have the conversations recorded. The judge and jury listened to the tape recordings. In the tape, Mr Francis reminds Lord Archer about him asking to say they had dinner together. Lord Archer says: "We'll have to be careful, Ted. We don't want to go to a court of law with this."
Lord Archer tells him he has Mr Francis's name in his diary for the night.
But he later says: "I definitely had dinner that night at that restaurant. It wasn't with you." The journalist said Mr Francis had told him the dinner date had been Ms Andrina Colquhoun, Lord Archer's former personal assistant and named in court as his mistress.
Mr Thurlbeck said Mr Francis had told him he had approached Lord Archer for £20,000 for a production. Lord Archer had not been interested, but after agreeing to provide the alibi, told Mr Francis the money was "as good as his".
The hearing was adjourned until Monday.