Lord Archer was last night counting the days to his freedom - now only one month away.

He was being granted parole at the earliest possible date, it was announced yesterday.

The Parole Board said the disgraced Tory peer, who has served nearly two years of a four-year sentence for perjury, will be granted parole from Saturday, July 19.

It is understood that Lord Archer is likely to be released from Hollesley Bay open prison at Woodbridge, Suffolk, on Monday, July 21.

The Conservative party declined to comment on the news of its former deputy chairman.

And a spokeswoman for Lady Archer said she did not wish to comment at this stage.

But former Tory Cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken, who served seven months of an 18-month sentence for perjury in a libel action, said: "I'm delighted that Jeffrey is expected to be released on July 21.

"It would have been a monstrous injustice if the Parole Board had gone the other way."

But Mark Leech, founder of ex-offenders' charity Unlock and editor of the Prisons Handbook, said he was "astonished".

"No other prisoner in that position would have been treated in such a favourable way," he said.

"Favouritism has been a constant feature of his time inside - the 'Old Boys Network' seems to be alive and well at the Home Office."

A spokesman for the Parole Board said: "The bottom line of any Parole Board decision is the risk to the public of any further offence during the time when the offender would otherwise be in prison."

Last September the peer - prisoner number FF8282 - was transferred from an open prison, North Sea Camp, to the far tougher, medium security HMP Lincoln after it emerged he had attended a party at the home of Conservative MP Gillian Shephard. He claimed that he had been singled out unfairly for harsh and punitive treatment, and that he was unaware he had broken any prison rules.

Soon afterwards, the Prison Service announced it was investigating claims that he had lunch with a prison officer and policewoman at an Italian restaurant in Lincoln while on work placement at the local theatre.

The prison officer resigned but the policewoman was allowed to keep her job.

There were also questions raised over whether Archer, who is worth an estimated £60m, should have been allowed to publish and promote a book based on his prison diaries.

But within three weeks of it emerging that he had lunched with Mrs Shephard, Archer was back at another open jail, Hollesley Bay, which is dubbed "Holiday Bay" by some inmates because of its seaside location, relaxed regime and modern facilities.