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Heather Mills, the estranged wife of Sir Paul McCartney, compared herself to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Kate McCann yesterday, as she launched a furious attack on tabloid newspapers and the “spin” that has been coming from a “certain corner” during the couple’s divorce negotiations.

Delivering her opening salvo on GMTV, she proceeded from studio to studio. On the way, she met and lobbied the Prime Minister, claimed that she had considered killing herself, and her publicist resigned.

Phil Hall, her PR agent for the past two years, said: “My advice was that taking newspapers on was not going to end in a victory for her.”

Ms Mills complained that she had suffered “worse press than a paedophile or a murderer” and had “done nothing but charity for 20 years”.

She claimed that the bad press had generated a hate campaign and led to death threats, putting her daughter and herself at risk. “That’s why I considered killing myself, because I thought if I’m dead then she can be safe and she can be with her father,” she told viewers of GMTV.

Staring directly at the camera, she said: “I have a box of evidence that is going to a certain person should anything happen to me, so if you top me off it’s still going to the certain person and the truth will come out.”

The tipping point for Ms Mills was a report in The Sun newspaper on Tuesday. The report alleged that a firework display organised for her daughter, Beatrice, caused a neighbour’s horses to stampede and a dog to die of a fatally bloated gut. Ms Mills said: “I have traced back to the vet Tim and he said, ‘What a load of rubbish, the dog had been ill for a while’.”

She had arrived at the GMTV studios with two files of cuttings to illustrate her case, as well as video recordings she had made of paparazzi waiting outside her home.

“I’m going to the European Parliament and I’m going to change the law,” she said. She asked viewers to sign an online petition, which describes her treatment as a “human rights violation”. Signatories can request that they be notified of “any future marches”.

An apprehensive-looking Fiona Phil-lips, the GMTV presenter, raised the question of her divorce, and reports that she was demanding £50 million. “I have been offered nothing,” Ms Mills said. “These figures are made up.”

She said that legal fees had left her £1.5 million in debt. “I’m gagged at the moment and not allowed to say a word while the media are fed this spin by a certain corner.”

She briefly met Gordon Brown at the studio and pressed her case with him. “He thinks it’s a great idea,” she said later.

Later on in the day she appeared on This Morning, another ITV programme, where Fern Britton, the presenter, wondered whether she should simply ignore bad coverage, which is the sad lot of other celebrities such as Madonna and Sir Elton John.

“I can’t forget it. They’re not responsible for nine countries Fern, come on,” she said, explaining that she was involved in “hundreds of campaigns”.

In between her on-screen appearances came an encounter with the listeners to Radio 5 Live’s phone-in programme. Victoria Derbyshire, the presenter, read out text messages from listeners which were less than complimentary, to which Ms Mills responded: “That is just the Beatles nutters who sit on websites writing things in.”

Last night Downing Street confirmed that the Prime Minister had met Ms Mills. “She asked him to look into the points she was raising. He agreed to do so, as he would with any such request.”

MILLS SPEAKS OUT

“ I’ve had 4,400 abusive articles. Look what they are doing to the McCanns . . . What are we doing persecuting a woman that is devastated behind closed doors and trying to hold it together, as I have for 18 months?”

“It’s because I married an icon . . . Linda . . . went through the same and then she was revered when she died. Maybe if the death threats came true the same thing might happen to me”

“They are damaging the platform that I have been given to make a difference. I could sit at home and drink my tea and ignore all these pleas and emails. When I watch an Alsatian puppy being skinned alive I could say, ‘Yeah, no problem, I’ll leave it”

“I think they [the Press] are gonna try and tear me apart again but it can’t get any worse”

“I’ve cleared thousands of miles of land from mines, I’ve helped amputees, yet someone can sing a song for two seconds or act in a film and they are revered”

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