THE ARCHER AFFAIR: THE ARCHER QUESTION

Q: Why did he feel the need to cover up his dinner date with Andrina Colquhoun on 9 September 1986?

A: Lord Archer had been warned by Margaret Thatcher and his wife, Mary, to cease meeting his former secretary in 1985. Before then, she had acted as his hostess, companion and assistant. He would spend the week in London with Ms Colquhoun working at his side, and spend the weekend with Maryb in Grantchester, near Cambridge. If he did indeed have dinner in a restaurant with Ms Colquhoun, Lord Archer would not have wanted to expose either her or himself to the resultant publicity in the libel trial.

On Sunday, Ms Colquhoun left her home in Oxfordshire in tears, in a BMW car with the personalised number plate ANY 1. The number plate was sold to her by Lord Archer. Ms Colquhoun is now married and the mother of a nine-year-old son.