Thai prisoners could fly hom

Up to 31 Britons serving jail sentences in Thailand - most for drug smuggling - could be switched to British jails in the wake of the Queen's Far East visit, it emerged last night.

Relations between the two countries are at a high water mark signalled by the monarch's five-day state visit to the country.

While convention forbids the Queen to raise the matter, the Foreign Secretary Malcolm Rifkind was set to discuss the exchange of prisoners between Britain and Thailand at a bilateral meeting during the tour.