The MP for jailed peer Jeffrey Archer's hometown has called from him to be expelled from sitting in the House of Lords.

Lib Dem Brian Cotter says Archer, who goes by the title Lord Archer of Weston-super-Mare, has let down everyone in the seaside resort.

He has flouted the rules and ... pulled Weston-super-Mare's name down

Brian Cotter

Mr Cotter said he had kept quiet about the best-selling novelist's antics, but his recently published diaries about prison life were a step too far.

The Weston MP has tabled an early-day motion (EDM) calling for a change in the law to prevent peers convicted of a serious crime sitting in the Upper House.

The EDM coincides with a telephone poll in Archer's local newspaper, the Weston and Somerset Mercury, which asks readers to say whether the disgraced peer should keep his title.

'Serious crimes'

Mr Cotter said: "He has just gone too far with the diary.

"Had he done his sentence quietly, then as far as I'm concerned it wouldn't be an issue.

"But the way he has flouted the rules and bent them brought the law into disrepute and pulled Weston-super-Mare's name down.

Archer went 'too far' with his prison diaries, says Cotter

"I don't think that he should be allowed to sit in the House of Lords, which is the final court of law in the country and makes laws.

"MPs convicted of serious crimes are not allowed to sit in the Commons. I don't see why it should be different in the Lords."

Mr Cotter's EDM says, "the current reform of Parliament should include consideration of the status of members of the Upper House who have been convicted in a court of law, and that the same rules that apply to Honourable Members in such circumstances should apply also to peers."

Farewell peerage?

Stephen Pound is one MP who has already signed the motion, which Mr Cotter hopes will receive significant support in the Commons.

Mr Pound, Labour MP for Ealing North, said: "What is completely indefensible is that Jeffrey Archer can swagger into the chamber at the House of Lords and make laws at the same time as showing a contempt for the law.

"People like myself know Weston as a holiday resort, but this kind of publicity does you no good.

'Indefensible' that Archer can 'swagger' into the House of Lords, says Pound

"I have written to the Royal Household to see what the procedure is for removing a peerage in a case like this."

Mr Cotter has written to Commons leader Robin Cook to ask if his motion could be considered in reform of the House of Lords

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, is expected to receive a proposal from an all-party committee of MPs and peers that any peer sentenced to a prison term of more than 12 months should be automatically disqualified from membership of the House of Lords.

Perjury

The committee was set up to consider reforms for the Upper House.

Archer - who in July last year was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for perjury - would almost certainly be caught by this new rule if it were adopted.

However, if Archer was removed from the House of Lords he would still retain his title.

He could be stripped of that only by a special Act of Parliament, since it was awarded under the 1958 Life Peers Act.

Parliament seems unlikely to want to go to those lengths.

Lord Archer has been writing prolifically during his sentence, which he has served at various jails.