Falconer seeks a way to strip Archer of his title

Constitutional Affairs minister trawls history for precedents in order to rid the House of Lords of the former Tory, due to be freed from jail tomorrow

Lord Falconer, the Constitutional Affairs minister, is delving into England's violent and colourful history for a legal precedent that would give Parliament the power to stop the disgraced peer Jeffrey Archer from using his title.

Lord Archer has told the authorities he will live at his penthouse by the Thames when he leaves prison tomorrow - which raises the prospect of the former Tory deputy chairman returning to his seat in the House of Lords, a five-minute walk away.

He is being released on licence after serving half a four-year sentence for perjury and perverting the course of justice. Mary Archer lives at the Old Vicarage in Grantchester, Cambridgeshire, and her husband was expected to register that as his nominated home - but he has chosen the flat on the Embankment with its views of the Houses of Parliament instead.

An MP who is convicted and jailed for a criminal offence automatically loses his seat in the Commons. If he is a Privy Counsellor - like Jonathan Aitken - he loses the right to style himself the Right Honourable. But Lord Archer is just the latest in a long line of peers who have created scandals or committed crimes at no risk to their titles and formal honours.

The greatest assault on the privileges of the peers was in 1999, when the Government removed the voting rights of all but 92 of the hereditary peers. But even those who lost those voting rights retain their titles as dukes, earls or marquises.

Ministers considered introducing a reform in 1999 which would have taken away the voting rights of any peer convicted of a criminal offence, but dropped the idea, fearing that Lord Archer would not be the only peer to be affected by such a move.

One of the 92 hereditary peers still in the Lords was jailed 50 years ago for a homosexual act with a consenting adult, and ministers were unwilling to penalise a respected public figure for something that they thought should never have been a criminal offence. However, that problem will be resolved when the remaining hereditary peers have their voting rights removed.

Legislation on the next stage of Lords reform has meanwhile been held up by cabinet disagreements over what to do since the fiasco earlier this year when the Commons was presented with a range of options, and rejected them all.

Tony Blair and Lord Falconer now want a limited reform which would remove the voting rights of the last 92 hereditary peers and create an independent appointments commission.

Others, including the Commons leader Peter Hain and the Lords leader Lord Williams, want more radical reforms, so that at least some peers are elected, but the Prime Minister is insisting that there cannot be two classes of voting peers and that they must either all be appointed or all elected.

Once that has been resolved, and new legislation is brought forward - probably later this year - it will include a clause barring Lord Archer or any other convicted criminal from being a voting peer.

A source close to Lord Falconer said: "The Commons can take away Archer's voting rights. That's not a problem, because they did that to the hereditary peers. What we don't know is whether the Commons have the right to take his title away."

There is no known case in recent history of a peer having his title removed, no matter how foul his crime. When Earl Ferrers was publicly hanged for murder in 1760, he was an earl up until the executioner's work was done, with liveried servants and a troop of cavalry to accompany him on his final journey to Tyburn. One of his heirs still sits in the Lords as a Conservative peer.

Lord Falconer has now asked for information about the Tudor practice of punishing those who offended the monarch by passing Bills of Attainder which stripped them and their heirs of all their grand titles - as well as having the offender beheaded, a fate that not even the Labour government proposed to inflict on Lord Archer.

Lord Falconer is also investigating the case of the Earl of Strafford, favourite of Charles I, who was executed after the Commons passed an Act of Attainder against him in 1640.

The MPs insisted that he "suffer such pains of death, and incur the forfeitures of his goods and chattels, lands, tenements and hereditaments of any estate of freehold or inheritance in the said kingdoms of England and Ireland, which the said Earl or any other to his use, or in trust for him, have or had, the day of the first sitting of this Parliament, or at any time since".

There was also Henry Wriothesley, attainted and sent to the Tower of London in 1601 for his part in a plot against Queen Elizabeth I. He is referred to in contemporary documents as "the late earl of Southampton" - clearly implying that he was no longer regarded as holding any status as an earl.

Revealed! Exclusive extracts of those get-out-of-jail diaries

Exclusive! Other so-called rival media outlets are vying furiously to secure the thoughts and future plans of Jeffrey Archer as he prepares to leave prison tomorrow. Undeterred, The Independent on Sunday, mindful of his lordship's indomitable gifts, has just gone and made it all up. Now sample, if you dare, a revealing journal that is as likely to be true as anything else you may come across in this area. Thank you.

Monday, 21 July, 2003

Hollesley Bay Open Prison. The dawn came up like thunder across the bay. Hmmm, that's rather good, must make a note. Some people think writing a book is easy. And I think that, perhaps, in the past, because of my gift, I have tended to make it look a bit too easy. Not enough of the old JK Rowling single-mum-baby-in-one-hand-pen-in-the-other-shivering-in-Edinburgh-café stuff. A mistake. I have made them, occasionally. As did JK. "A boy who can't stop telling fibs," I told her, "and still ends up feted in the highest circles of society? Unbelievable! A boy magician pottering around at a boarding school for wizards, that's more like it. " "All right, Muggles," she said, using my pet name. And look at her now. Mind you, I did warn her: "More semi-colons: more semi-colons unless you want Antonia Byatt after you!" Hard, you see, the life of a writer. That's why I have spent these past two years behind bars rather publicly researching my next book. And now it's over. Out today! I've made some good friends, though. "We want to know where you live, Jeff," they say, gathering round in the showers, "so we can pay you back." And all I've done, in my capacity as librarian, is to introduce them to some solid literature, crafted by a natural storyteller whose own remarkable life reads like fiction. Must close now as I'm due for my last hang-gliding lesson before giving the Governor his pep talk.

Tuesday, 22 July

Well! Yesterday! What a day! I know I've achieved a certain position in national life, but really! From the moment the flashbulbs exploded from 231 cameras - and after I'd told Snowdon he'd be much better on 200 ASA with a zoom lens at 70mm, shooting at 1/25th of a second at f2.8 - there was only one question from the 1,021 assorted media, including Uruguayan and Bhutanese film crews, outside Hollesley: "Whatever next, Jeffrey?" What could I say? The truth is that I'm not my own man. There are duties, responsibilities, the destinies of others ... So, winking at Sir Trevor, I told Mary to hold on tight and gunned the Harley for Grantchester. Mary looks splendid in leathers. Her face, though, seems to have changed: more serene, somehow, even if the headaches are no better.

Friday, 5 September

The prison book is selling remarkably well, I must say, even if the critics have been their usual carping selves. Some suggestion that the wooden horse thing has been done before, and the dummy, and the tunnel under the stove, and, would you believe, the glider! Sometimes I wonder if these people understand the distinction between fact and fiction. The police are being a bore again, too, although how they can imagine I got round Monza in under 1min 50, won three TT titles back-to-back and captained the Poole Pirates for six years with only a provisional licence is beyond me. I thought I saw John Major the other day, but it couldn't have been, as he ignored my shout and was wearing dark glasses and carrying a bouquet. Ah, well.

Saturday, 4 October

A bit of a breakthrough! Party Conference in Blackpool next week, and I telephoned IDS with a few tips. "Jeffrey," he said. "When I want your advice, I'll ask for it." So there we are: Special Adviser to the Leader! Archer is back! Should make a pretty decent splash in the Sundays tomorrow!

Monday, 6 October

Goodness, but it's good to be back in the saddle again! And we certainly covered some ground yesterday. I was most flattered when IDS called early on Sunday and said he had a vitally important hush-hush mission for me, but I wouldn't have been much use out here if I hadn't been on a camel before. (Omar Sharif's body double, since you ask.) Ann W is finding it a bit hard going. I'm not so sure about tonight's stop: I can't decide whether the Hotel Wadi El R'nooqis reminds me of Belmarsh or Wayland. The patron is a rum cove, too. Wears a beret and full of all sorts of guff about palaces with gold bath fittings. Honestly. Why do people feel the need to make up stories?

Wednesday 5 November

It's not like me to shirk hard truths, so I'd better confess that I've been only half successful out here. Not a sign of Saddam. What a coup that would have been for the party! "Saddam taken by Tories!" Ah, well. But I have done the next best thing. I've found the WMD. I have. A great stonking missile, fully armed, ready to go within 45 minutes! Actually, to be honest, I got a bit bored and built one myself! The hardest thing was finding some empty washing-up liquid bottles in this country, but, all in all, I think it's pretty convincing. Fingers crossed.

Thursday 6 November

Absolute bloody fiasco. Central Office pointed out, a little brusquely, if you ask me, that finding a WMD, although a notable achievement, would get Mr T Blair rather off the hook. So I've concealed it. Now let's pray to God that it doesn't rain any time soon or there'll be bubbles from Basra to Karbala. Home, I think, or Mary will be missing me.

Friday, 19 December

The traditional Xmas party in the penthouse went very well, I thought. The Krug and shepherd's pie lasted splendidly. I had an interesting talk with one of the waitresses. Mary said hello. Difficult to understand, though. I wonder if she's training to be a ventriloquist. You can have too many politicians and Establishment types at these dos, can't you? Give me Anthea Turner, Jordan, Scott from Big Brother, Jim Bowen, Huw Edwards, Anita Brookner and the Chuckle Brothers any time! My, that Jordan's a sturdily built girl, isn't she? Keen to get on, too: very much on top of her subject in the public affairs sessions I'm having with her. But Anita looked at me a little oddly when I offered to escort her to the car park.

Wednesday 31 December

Only a few days to go to the end of the year. Everyone impressed with the way I've bounced back, if the respectful, even awed, reception I get at the Lords is anything to go by. Even so, I wish they would realise how approachable I am. I said to Nelson when he rang the other day to ask which shirt to wear, success has changed neither of us. I have to say that I was a bit taken aback by Mary and Professor Stephen Hawking. Still, mustn't be distracted, as I'm off to Madrid now to face perhaps my greatest ever challenge. Hola, Señor Beckham, meet your new Spanish teacher!

Charles Nevin