The Crown Prosecution Service has decided there is insufficient evidence to gain a conviction against 18-year-old Victoria Aitken.

She was arrested in March, suspected of conspiring to pervert the cause of justice during her father's collapsed libel case against the Guardian newspaper over articles about his alleged links with Arab businessmen.

Mr Aitken is due in court on 15 September

Mr Aitken faces charges of perjury and perverting the course of justice.

The police investigation stems from Mr Aitken's aborted libel case against The Guardian newspaper and Granada Television over allegations about his links with Arab businessmen.

Mr Aitken resigned as chief secretary to the treasury in April 1995 to fight the libel action after saying he would take on the "cancer of bent and twisted journalism". He called the case "a crusade for truth".

But he dropped it in June 1997 after the newspaper produced new evidence concerning his contention that his wife Lolicia had paid a bill for a stay at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on a visit to the French capital with their daughter.

Mr Aitken remained an MP but lost his South Thanet seat in Kent, which he had represented since 1974, at the General Election in May 1997.