Gay Labour peer and Lily Savage star dragged into producer's £300k High Court battle over will

Lord Alli, whose TV production company created The Big Breakfast and The Word, is accused of being instrumental in drafting the will which distributes the £300,000 estate of TV producer Brendan Murphy.

Comedian Paul O'Grady, better known as drag act Lily Savage, is also embroiled in the disagreement and has been named in the High Court writ.

It is alleged that Mr Murphy, who was diagnosed with HIV 13 years before he died aged 49 in June 2005, was 'unable to communicate or move' when Lord Alli is said to have obtained his 'identifying mark' on the document as he lay dying.

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Mr Murphy's family claim the will, made under Lord Alli's influence, reduced their legacy.

The validity of the document - made just four days before Mr Murphy's death from brain cancer - is now being challenged by two of his brothers and his sister in a High Court battle. The writ alleges that although Mr Murphy lived in his own flat in Covent Garden, in the days leading up to his death he moved in with Mr O'Grady, 52, at the star's home in Ashford, Kent.

Following a rapid deterioration in his health, Mr Murphy was taken to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital from Mr O'Grady's home on June 7 and was pronounced dead on June 9.

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On Friday, June 3, Mr Murphy had been visited by Dr David Asboe, who found expressive dysphasia.

The family claim doctors told them that by June 5, Mr Murphy was unable to communicate or move and by June 7 he could follow only simple instructions such as to open his eyes.

The writ states Mr Murphy 'is said to have put a mark on the will during the course of that period of rapid deterioration, at a time when he was unable to communicate, on Sunday, June 5, 2005'.

Mr Murphy was not certified by a doctor as being fit to execute a will, the writ alleges, and Dr Asboe, having seen the patient on June 3, said Mr Murphy 'would only have been capable of understanding the fact that he was making a will with patient and repeated explanation'.

Under what Mr Murphy's family allege was a hastily drafted and repeatedly modified will, Mr Murphy's brothers Chris and Dermot and sister Patricia Colliss were to be handed £25,000, while his estranged brother Larry would receive £10,000.

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Yet Mr Murphy's on-off lover, the ballet dancer Andre Portasio, was set to receive £100,000 and his former PA Joan Helen Marshrons - who now works for Mr O'Grady at BM Creative Management - was in line for £25,000.

The writ alleges that the rest of the estate would go to Mr O'Grady.

Mr Murphy had known Mr O'Grady, who is gay, for more than 25 years. The pair were first a couple but Mr Murphy later became his manager and close confidant and the producer of the star's TV show. Lord Alli, 42, the co-founder and managing director of TV production company Planet 24, became the youngest and first openly gay peer in Parliament at the age of 34.

The Murphy family accuse Lord Alli of asking a friend of Mr O'Grady, Frances Moira Stewart, to draft the will.

In the writ, the family allege Ms Stewart emailed Ms Marshrons the final draft of the will, with the words: 'This is the final draft. In a perfect world, it would be dealt with by a solicitor sitting by the bed and going through this.'

Chris Murphy, 44, said last night his brother was so close to his family that he would never have left them with so little, and alleged Mr Murphy 'did not have the mental capacity to issue that will'.

Chris Murphy, who works for the Metropolitan Police and lives in Thamesmead, South-East London, said: 'I don't know what right Waheed Alli had to ask Frances Stewart to draw up a will. I didn't know anything about it and nor did the family.

'A will was signed - what I contest is whether the person who signed it had the mental capacity to do so. Our relationship was such that he wouldn't have left legacies like he did in that will. He was a family man and all the family are very close.

'He wouldn't have divided his estate in that way. There is also no mention of his nieces and nephews, or his cousins.

'My solicitors endeavoured to resolve the dispute on an amicable basis but I was forced to issue proceedings because the other side weren't prepared to attend a withoutprejudice meeting to discuss the family's concerns.'

He added: 'It is shocking that we haven't really had a chance to grieve. There has been a price to pay for us emotionally and financially.'

Papers were lodged with the High Court this week and the hearing is set for next summer.

When contacted in Singapore, Mr O'Grady said: 'I'm not saying anything about that.'

The English National Ballet, which employs Mr Portasio, said he was in Cambodia on holiday and could not be contacted for comment.

Lord Alli and Ms Marshrons did not return calls but it is understood that they deny the allegations contained in the writ.

Ms Stewart, speaking outside her flat in Streatham, South West London, said: 'I don't think I have anything to say about Brendan Murphy.

'I think you need to go and talk to the family and the people who were involved, not me. I can't really talk to you, I have no comment.'