The disgraced Tory peer, Lord Archer, was arrested and questioned by police yesterday over allegations that he asked a friend to lie for him in the run-up to a libel trial.
The millionaire novelist and former Tory mayoral candidate spent several hours being interrogated after keeping an appointment at a London police station.
He was later released and bailed to return in June.
Scotland Yard confirmed that they were interviewing a 59-year-old man over allegations of attempts to pervert the course of justice.
The former Tory grandee was forced to drop out of the race to become London mayor after admitting he had asked a friend to provide an alibi for a night, it was alleged by the Daily Star, he had slept with a prostitute, Monica Coghlan.
The scandal prompted the Conservative Party to expel its former deputy chairman for five years.
Lord Archer refused to comment to journalists as he arrived back at his luxury London riverside flat shortly before 5 p.m. after visiting the police station.
He arrived in a red Proton Persona Compact with two other men.
Conservative Central Office also refused to comment on the developments, saying the fallen peer had "nothing to do with us".
Lord Archer has admitted he was a "fool" to ask Mr Ted Francis to say they were dining together when in fact he was dining with "a close personal friend", later revealed as Ms Andrina Colquhoun.
He said he wanted to shield his former personal assistant from publicity.
In the event the false evidence was not required because the Daily Star changed the date it alleged the encounter with Coghlan took place before the matter came to trial in 1987.
Lord Archer won the case and was awarded a record £500,000 damages.
The Daily Star asked Scotland Yard to investigate whether a criminal offence had been committed when news of the false alibi emerged last year.
It is demanding a £3 million repayment of the damages, including interest and costs.
Lord Archer has refused, insisting the matter did not affect the trial.
But the paper claims if the jury had known he was prepared to ask a friend to lie to cover up his meeting with a young woman, they might not have been so ready to accept the heavy play made during the trial of the peer as a family man happily married to his wife Mary, memorably described by the trial judge as "fragrant".
Mr Francis said he felt obliged to go public on the false alibi after Lord Archer won the Tory nomination for mayoral candidate.
The Daily Star said it was watching developments "with great interest".
Lord Archer's arrest yesterday overshadowed the fact that the millionaire novelist had begun to appear again in public.