The Labour MP's lawyers said News Group Newspapers had agreed to pay £100,000 ($155,000/€119,000) of the settlement direct to a charity of her choice.

"News Group has agreed to pay damages in the sum of £200,000, £100,000 of which will be paid directly to a charity which she has supported for some time," said Tamsin Allen, the solicitor from Bindmans LLP, representing Jowell.

"The payment will be registered with the appropriate Parliamentary authorities on receipt.

"She will continue to cooperate fully with the Metropolitan Police investigation and as a core participant in the Leveson Inquiry [which is investigating phone hacking].

"Her concern has always been to ensure a transparent investigation so that the truth about phone hacking should emerge in full and she is confident that will now happen."

The substantial settlement for breach of privacy and harassment was announced after the Metropolitan Police told Jowell her mobile phone had been hacked "wholesale".

Jowell was a major factor in London's successful bid to host the Olympics and Paralympics, persuading then Prime Minister Tony Blair to back the bid when several members of the Cabinet, including Chancellor Gordon Brown, were opposed to it.

Jowell's phone was allegedly targeted in 2006 when her estranged husband, David Mills, was at the centre of controversy over his links to former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Blair subsequently claimed in his autobiography that Berlusconi had persuaded Italy's five International Olympic Committee members to vote for London rather than Paris, contributing significantly to the four-vote win.

"I was very extensively hacked - 'wholesale', as it was put to me," said Jowell, who remains a member of the London 2012 Board. 

"It was quite clear it was wholesale as there were things no one else should have known.

"It makes you feel like you're going mad.

"It made me feel like I couldn't trust anyone at the time."

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