An IRA prison escapee pardoned by Margaret Thatcher’s government has said she was a pragmatist whose ministers made small concessions as part of dealings with Ireland.

A man was arrested in London today for questioning about a sectarian murder in Northern Ireland more than 35 years ago.

DRAWN into militant loyalism from an early age, Michael Stone, 50, joined the infamous loyalist Tartan Gang at the age of 13 and by the age of 16 he had already been held in Belfast’s Crumlin Road jail for possession of firearms and membership of the Ulster Defence Association.