Jailed peer's N-East fortune

The disgraced former MP, jailed for four years for perjury, owns property across the North East.

It means the multi-millionaire best-selling author is still getting hundreds of thousands of pounds a year in rent.

Meanwhile, Archer is living rent-free as a guest of Her Majesty at HMP North Sea Camp, in Lincolnshire.

Included in his property portfolio is the land on which building company Miller Homes has its headquarters in North Shields.

This includes a four-storey office block and separate site ready for development, thought to be worth a large six-figure sum a year to Archer.

A spokesman for the Land Registry said: "We can confirm that Lord Archer has a 125-year lease near the Royal Quays in North Shields."

The former MP, once a candidate for Mayor of London and a former Tory Party deputy chairman, was jailed for lying and cheating, and ordered to pay thousands of pounds in court costs.

He was found guilty of lying in the infamous 1987 libel trial over claims that he slept with prostitute Monica Coghlan, who was killed last year in a crash involving a fleeing armed robber.

He is a millionaire twice over after making a fortune and then losing it in the early 1970s.

In an attempt to recoup some money he wrote a novel, drawing on the disaster.

The result, Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less, was an instant bestseller and launched him on a new path to fame and riches as a writer.

His books, which also include Kane and Abel, The Prodigal Daughter and First Among Equals, sold millions of copies around the world and made him a millionaire.

He bounced back into politics in 1985 and became a deputy chairman of the Tory Party, despite chairman Norman Tebbit's deep reservations.

In 1999, he was selected as the Tory candidate in the London Mayoral elections but his career was shattered again when he was charged and then subsequently jailed for perjury.

A spokeswoman for Archer said: "We have no comment to make about this at all."