Lord Archer's supporters mounted a fierce defence of the humiliated peer last night, insisting he was not preparing to resign from the Conservative Party after his admission that he lied ahead of his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star.
With further damaging revelations about his past likely to appear in the British press and the prospect of being thrown out of the party when he faces the ethics and integrity committee, a spokesman for Lord Archer denied reports that he was about to sever all links with the party.
"Jeffrey Archer is not resigning from the Conservative Party," he declared amid reports that there was "zero chance" of Lord Archer paying back the damages awarded to him arising from the libel case or appearing before the ethics committee.
Further disgrace was heaped on the peer's reputation when his former associate, Mr Ted Francis, insisted he revealed his part in Lord Archer's lie because he believed that he was not fit to be mayor of London.
In an interview with the London radio station, Talk Radio, Mr Francis recalled how Lord Archer had asked him if he would write to his lawyer saying they had dinner together on the night of September 9th, 1986 when the Daily Star alleged he was with the prostitute, Ms Monica Coughlan.
Mr Francis said he assumed he was being asked to concoct a fictitious dinner date with the peer to protect him from divorce proceedings rather than take part in a "plot" to lie about his real movements ahead of the libel case.
The conversation took place at a restaurant and Mr Francis said Lord Archer asked him what he was doing on September 9th, 1986: "I said, `God, I don't know,' bearing in mind this was four months later. I said, `I don't know. I could check in my diary' and he said, `Could we have been having dinner?"'
Lord Archer then got to the point, Mr Francis said, asking him to lie about the dinner date: "He said: `I want you to do me a favour and say we were having dinner. I was having dinner with somebody else on that night but it would embarrass me with Mary [Lady Archer].
"So will you say it was with you and not with Andrina [Lord Archer's assistant], as it turned out?"
Lord Archer went on to win his libel case and was awarded £500,000 by the High Court which the paper says it wants returned by tomorrow. The amount plus legal fees and interest is said to be $3 million.
Meanwhile, the Tories last night called in the police after saying their private bank accounts had been hacked into in a "dirty tricks" operations to reveal details about donations from the Belize-based businessman Mr Michael Ashcroft.
According to newspaper reports, Mr Ashcroft, who is also the Tory Party treasurer, has given huge donations to the Conservatives in the past year via a Belize bank trust.