Pressure on peers over vote

The Prime Minister's office telephoned Conservative peers to swing the vote for a change in the law on defamation which could help the Tory MP and former minister Neil Hamilton.

A number of Conservative peers said they had been contacted to lobby support for the amendment to the Defamation Bill, although it was on a free vote without whipping.

Mr Hamilton, MP for Tatton, could restart his action against the Guardian, according to the Lord Chancellor's Department, if the amendment in the Lords is passed by the Commons.

The amendment, which was passed by the House of Lords by 1,587 votes to 57, will give MPs and peers new rights to sue newspapers over reports of their Parliamentary activities.

The amendment to the Defamation Bill followed a court ruling which stopped Mr Hamilton pursuing an action against the Guardian, over reports that he had accepted payments from Mohammed al-Fayed and a six-day visit to the Ritz Hotel in Paris.