The Guardian last night called on the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute Jonathan Aitken for perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice after the dramatic collapse yesterday of his libel trial.
Aitken, the former cabinet minister, discontinued his libel action against the Guardian and Granada Television after new evidence proved he had lied to the High Court. He now faces public disgrace and a legal bill for pounds 1.8 million.
Aitken, who lost his Thanet South seat at the election, failed to turn up for yesterday's two-minute hearing, in which his counsel, Charles Gray QC, agreed Aitken would pay almost all of the defendants' legal bill.
Aitken's action collapsed after the Guardian produced new evidence in the High Court on Wednesday: British Airways flight coupons and Budget car hire documents showed the ex-MP committed perjury about the payment of a bill for his controversial stay at the Paris Ritz in September 1993.
The documents proved that his wife, Lolicia, and his daughter, Victoria, then 14, had flown directly to Geneva, and had never visited Paris as he had told the High Court. His wife had flown back from Geneva, while her daughter went on to boarding school.
That meant Mrs Aitken could never - as he insisted - have paid the bill for the Ritz, where the then minister for defence procurement spent time with Saudi businessmen. The Guardian said the bill had been paid by an Arab associate, in contravention of ministerial rules.
On Tuesday, Aitken had filed a signed witness statement from his daughter, now 17, in which she told how she had travelled to Paris that weekend by ferry and train.
Her story backed up her father's version, but was exploded by the Guardian's discovery of the BA documents. Aitken had intended to produce his daughter as a witness on Thursday, where, had she stuck by her statement, she would have been required to lie on oath. But because of the Guardian's evidence, Mr Gray on Thursday asked Mr Justice Popplewell for an adjournment.
Aitken announced later that night his marriage was over, and by then his lawyers had already negotiated the humilating settlement.
Aitken faces the prospect of a criminal trial and an immediate custodial sentence if convicted of perjury.
The Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, last night wrote to Paul Condon, the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Dame Barbara Mills, to investigate what he described as 'a well-laid and carefully co-ordinated conspiracy to pervert the course of justice'.
Mr Rusbridger said yesterday: 'Jonathan Aitken seems to have impaled himself on the simple sword of truth. For three years he has lied to newspapers, lied to the Cabinet Secretary, lied to the Prime Minister and lied to his colleagues. Now he has made the fatal mistake of lying on oath to the High Court.
'Worse than that, Aitken - a former cabinet minister and a Privy Counsellor - intended to put his teenage daughter in the witness box to tell further lies to save his skin. This was the man who promised to use the trusty shield of British fair play.' He added: 'The case demonstrated how ineffective official procedures are in exposing dishonesty at the heart of public life.
'That role has almost exclusively been performed by the media in the past five years. But the libel laws make such reporting a dangerous and potentially prohibitive exercise. The Lord Chancellor should move urgently to reform the laws which make London the libel capital of the world.' Aitken also faced other allegations that he: * Procured prostitutes for Arab guests at a Berkshire health farm, Inglewood.
* Falsely passed himself off as Inglewood's owner to conceal the identity of the hydro's Arab purchasers.
* Lied while a director of TV-am, and covered up a plan to give Arab investors control of the channel.
* Concealed his links, while minister for defence procurement, with a Lebanese arms dealer involved in an arms contract between a British firm and the Lebanese government.
* Became financially dependent on his Arab contacts, including Prince Mohammed, the son of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
Aitken always denied an Arab associate had paid his Ritz bill. He claimed he arranged to meet his wife and daughter at the hotel during the weekend of September 17-19, 1993.
But they flew directly from London to Geneva on an 8.30am BA flight from Heathrow, an internal BA investigation revealed. Mrs Aitken then hired a car at Geneva airport at 12.02pm, Budget rent-a-car records showed.
The former Conservative MP maintained his wife returned to the Ritz on the Sunday from Switzerland and paid his hotel bill that afternoon using Dollars 3,000 dollars he had given her.
But Budget records show the car she hired was returned in Geneva at 6.35pm on Sunday night - she could not have paid his hotel bill in Paris two hours earlier.
In April 1995, Aitken - then chief secretary to the Treasury - made his infamous 'sword of truth' speech. He resigned from the cabinet three months later.