Disgraced Archer jettisoned by Tories

The Conservative leadership last night embarked on a brutal damage limitation exercise in the Jeffrey Archer affair when it removed the Tory whip from its disgraced former hero and belatedly dispatched what William Hague called "clear allegations" of his misconduct to its ethics committee.

But that is unlikely to be the end of the matter. Hague aides predicted that Lord Archer, ousted as Tory candidate for London mayor, will also be expelled from the party he has supported for more than 30 years, and yesterday, a Scotland Yard detective opened an inquiry into possible perjury or conspiracy charges against him. The Daily Star newspaper meanwhile demanded the return of the £1m or more it paid out in the 1987 libel case.

But the affair took a further twist last night when the author Adam Raphael claimed that the dinner guest whom Archer had supposedly tried to protect with a false alibi had not been Andrina Colquhoun, his personal assistant. Mr Raphael, who appeared as a witness in the libel trial 12 years ago, and wrote about the case in a book, said he knew the real identity of the diner.

"I have evidence about whom he was having dinner with that night, and it was not Andrina," he said."You can never believe what Lord Archer says the first time, the second time or the third time. The truth is a long time coming out."

Mr Raphael was one of two journalists who told the high court, in evidence during the Daily Star libel trial, that on the night the original News of the World story broke, Archer had admitted having met the prostitute Monica Coghlan.

The dining companion - "close personal friend" whom Archer was "trying to protect" - was named by the News of the World as Ms Colquhoun who then acted as hostess at Archer's parties and travelled to the Caribbean with him. She is now married and no longer works for Archer.

But the paper did not have complete proof of this and Archer had made only an oblique reference to Ms Colquhoun during taped conversations.

The police investigation was launched yesterday morning by Detective Superintendent Geoff Hunt, a respected senior officer in Scotland Yard's organised crime group.

Mr Hunt was in charge of the 10-month criminal investigation into Jonathan Aitken, following the collapse of the disgraced cabinet minister's libel trial against the Guardian and Granada television.

Lawyers yesterday offered conflicting predictions of the likely course of the civil and criminal actions.

Last night, the opposition leader distanced his party from Archer, saying: "This is the end of politics for Jeffrey Archer. I will not tolerate behaviour like this in my party. This will be an example to others and I will not hesitate to act the same way in the future."

Earlier, in a series of media interviews Mr Hague and his Tory party chairman, Michael Ancram, insisted that no specific charge had been made against Archer which would warrant being referred to the party's new ethics and integrity committee. It would have been against natural justice to act without "clear allegations", was the party line.

Mr Ancram added that the party had acted swiftly following the relevations over the weekend.

"This did come out of the blue," said Mr Ancram. "It was for the first time an allegation which had not been previously dealt with by a court of law, or by a tribunal, or an investigation by the DTI."

Although the Tory high command presented itself as shocked and betrayed by Archer's failure to admit to the collection of skeletons in his cupboard, some inside observers said that his weaknesses were well known.

With the pressure off Labour's mayoral problems, Tony Blair protested that Mr Hague had repeatedly been warned about Archer's record. The Tory leader "may be good at telling jokes, but every time it comes to as critical question like this, he gets it wrong", said Mr Blair.

It is thought that the crown prosecution service will be contacted by Mr Hunt at an early stage to provide advice. The detective will need to know whether there is enough evidence to charge Archer and if there is a 50% chance of a successful prosecution.

If Scotland Yard does pursue the investigation, a file will be sent to the central casework directorate - the crown prosecution service department that deals with sensitive and complicated inquiries - for further scrutiny, before a decision is taken about whether or not to prosecute him.