SHE branded the Beckhams ''freeloaders'', described the Princess Royal as frumpy and said Jerry Hall was as sexy as a plastic doll.

Lynda Lee-Potter, the Daily Mail columnist famed as the scourge of the rich and royal, died yesterday after suffering with a brain tumour.

Paul Dacre, the Mail's editor-in-chief, announced her death ''with great sadness''. He said: ''Lynda's genius was in putting into simple words what millions of ordinary people were thinking - articulating, without talking down to them, not only their dreams but also their anger and frustration.''

Lee-Potter wrote her final column in May. She was an institution at Northcliffe House, and when her writing stopped in the summer, readers contacted the newspaper to ask when it was returning. In July, the Mail announced she had health problems but was due back after the summer.

Her last contribution to the paper, which she joined in 1967, was an interview with the TV presenter Gloria Hunniford, who spoke for the first time about the death of Caron Keating, her only daughter - who followed her into television. Hunniford said yesterday: ''It was very emotional for me to hear of Lynda's death because I know the interview about Caron was the last one she did. Both Caron and I respected Lynda very much as a writer, and that was one of the reasons I decided to give the interview to her.

''She came to my house and because it was only five weeks after Caron died it was still so raw. I wept throughout the interview and Lynda wept with me. We were two mothers together.''

Hunniford added: ''She was a superb writer and one of the best columnists this country has ever had.''

Lord Rothermere, chairman of the Daily Mail and General Trust, said: ''For 32 years Lynda's interviews and columns made an incalculable contribution to the Mail's success. She was a remarkable person and represented the very best of journalism.''

Mr Dacre added: ''Bold enough to speak her mind, brave enough to take on the powerful, her ultimate loyalty was to those millions without a platform of their own, people whom she loved and with whom she identified.''

The mother of three was hired as a feature writer and became a columnist in 1977 before being given one of the paper's coveted private offices.

David Beckham and wife Victoria Beckham were derided by Lee-Potter as ''a seriously rich couple who turned freeloading into a fine art''.

The Princess Royal was slated for ''a terrible taste in frocks which usually makes her look like a frumpish Sunday school teacher''. Hall, the former model, had ''about as much sexual allure as a plastic doll''.

Magnus Linklater, the newspaper columnist, said: ''I think she had an almost uncanny knack of being able to communicate with her readers. She simply always seemed to know instinctively what they were thinking and to reflect their prejudices sometimes or what their reactions to events or people were. That is quite a rare gift in journalism and she had it to the nth degree.''

Dr Brian McNair, media lecturer at Stirling University, said: ''You have columnists who are the entertainers, and you have political columnists who we think have the inside track, then you have columnists who are a bit like licensed court jesters. They are the ones who have the authority to attack power, to debunk the powerful, and Linda Lee-Potter was in that category.''

Lee-Potter was born in Lancashire in the 1930s and twice named columnist of the year at the British Press Awards.

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