Jeffrey Archer has been released from jail after serving two years and two days of a four-year sentence.

A defiant Mary Archer today said her husband was pleased his controversial diaries were being serialised, despite fears they breach prison rules and could lengthen his sentence.

A warder at North Sea Camp prison has resigned after it emerged he had lunch with Lord Archer during the disgraced Tory peer’s day release from jail, the Prison Service said today.

Jeffrey Archer has been transferred to an open prison in rural Lincolnshire.