Hotel blaze peer walks out of prison into row over newspaper diary deal

Key quote

"I think it is absolutely outrageous that he should remain a member of the House of Lords. Just as Jeffrey Archer should have been stripped of his title, so should Lord Watson." - MIKE RUMBLES, LIBDEM MSP

Full story THE shamed peer Lord Watson walked free from prison yesterday morning and straight into a fresh row over claims that he will make a profit as a result of his criminal behaviour.

The former Scottish culture minister and MSP for Glasgow Cathcart intends to move to London to take up his seat again in the House of Lords and is understood to be planning to publish a diary of his time behind bars.

Watson, who was released from Edinburgh's Saughton Prison yesterday after serving half of a 16-month sentence for wilful fire-raising, has already struck a deal with a tabloid newspaper and was whisked away by its reporters moments after walking out of the gate.

The paper denied paying him for his story but would not comment on future serialisation of any diaries.

The nature of his departure also drew criticism from the Scottish Prison Service, which questioned why the car was allowed right up to the gates of the prison, breaching its security and safety rules.

Friends yesterday said they expected Watson to move to London to start a new life with his third wife Clare, whom he married in 2004.

One close friend said: "I think he has decided that the best thing he can do now is move down south.

"He cannot go back to being an MSP and there is still a lot of interest in him, though that will wane over time, but he has still got the Lords. Clare is working down in London and they have got a house there so it seems natural that they will try to start a new life away from Scotland."

Watson was jailed in September for starting a fire at the Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh, where he had been attending the Scottish Politician of the Year Awards, in the early hours of 12 November, 2004.

He initially denied responsibility for the fire but CCTV footage showed him crouching down at the base of a curtain just minutes before it was engulfed in flames. As was the case with Lord Archer, there is nothing to prevent a jailed peer resuming his place in the House of Lords upon release. The government did try to introduce legislation in the House of Lords Reform Bill to enable peers to be stripped of their titles, but it failed to get on to the statute books.

However the 57-year-old peer could yet find himself shown the door if planned reforms of the Lords go through.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Constitutional Affairs said there was a desire to bring the Lords into line with the House of Commons, where a jailed MP would lose the right to sit upon release.

"The rules of disqualification will be looked at as part of the wider House of Lords reforms," she said. "It could theoretically be applied retrospectively."

Watson will now be entitled to claim a tax-free allowance of 192 day for turning up at the Lords, and can also claim additional sums for accommodation and travel expenses.

He could also make a sizeable sum by taking a leaf out of Archer's book and publishing his prison memoirs. Archer, who was jailed in 2001 for perjury, turned his time inside into three volumes of diaries.

Yesterday, politicians expressed anger at the prospect of Watson profiting from his time in prison and resuming his attendance in the Lords.

Bill Aitken, a Conservative MSP, said: "Nobody should make a profit as a result of a criminal act."

He went on: "Maybe he could use any profit for charitable purposes, but I would be completely opposed to him keeping the money himself."

Mike Rumbles, a Liberal Democrat MSP, called for a change in the law to prevent Watson from resuming his Lords career.

"I think it is absolutely outrageous that he should remain a member of the House of Lords," he said. "Just as Jeffrey Archer should have been stripped of his title, so should Lord Watson."

And a spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service yesterday criticised the manner in which Watson was spirited away from the Edinburgh jail.

"I didn't think it would be allowed," he said. "The gate must be kept clear at all times. I know from working on the gate that if a taxi pulled up we would ask it to move. He [the car driver] should have been chased away."

He later said the decision had been taken by the police.

A spokesman for the Press Complaints Commission warned that any newspaper considering serialising Watson's prison diaries would be bound by the Code of Practice, as regards payment to criminals.

He said: "Clause 16 states: 'Payment for stories which seek to exploit a particular crime or to glamorise crime in general, must not be made directly or via agents to convicted criminals'."