Archer advised to 'forgive and forget'

Archer is serving his sentence 'twice over', says Aitken

Lord Archer is making prison twice as hard for himself because of the anger he feels towards people he believes "did wrong to him", according to ex-inmate Jonathan Aitken.

He also argues that pride played a big part in John Major's decision to take action against Scallywag magazine, which alleged he had been unfaithful to his wife.

Perhaps he is serving his sentence twice over because of the pain he still feels and the anger he still feels

Jonathan Aitken

Mr Aitken, who has suffered the sobriquet "disgraced former cabinet minister" since he was jailed for 18 months in June 1999 for perjury and perverting the course of justice, makes the claims during a wide-ranging interview with BBC News 24's One to One programme.

While Mr Aitken says he feels "absolutely a hundred per cent" contrite about his own wrong doing, he says this was not the impression given by Lord Archer, whose book A Prison Diary went on sale this week.

"There's nothing which shows that feeling in his diaries," he said.

'Richard the Third'

Instead Lord Archer was doing his sentence "twice over", said Mr Aitken, who turned to God during his own prison ordeal.

He explains: "There's a wonderful prison expression which I became quite familiar with called 'doing your Richard twice'.

"And you have to translate from rhyming slang here: Richard the Third equals bird, bird equals sentence, so it means serving your sentence twice over.

Aitken turned to God during his prison ordeal

"And I used to meet lots of guys in jail who were 'Richards', doing their Richard twice, and serving their sentence twice over because they were angry about the judge, the jury, the police officers, the witnesses in the case.

"And they seemed to have lost sight of the fact that they might just have contributed something to their own downfall."

'Wronged party?'

Mr Aitken said it would be better for the peer to move on.

"Now I think there are some parts of Jeffrey's excellent diaries, which are wonderfully scripted, of prison, which indicate that perhaps he is serving his sentence twice over because of the pain he still feels and the anger he still feels of what he thinks people who did wrong to him...

"He may or may not be right of them, but I think my advice would be to forgive and forget and get on to a new life."

Duncan Smith makes 'outstanding speeches', says Aitken

Mr Aitken said he thought Mr Major, the Tory former prime minister who has since admitted having a four year affair with ex-health minister Edwina Currie, had "got it wrong" when he started libel proceedings against Scallywag magazine.

Sport Newspapers, a major backer of Scallywag is demanding the return of £50,000 it claims it lost as a result of a legal settlement with Mr Major.

'Angry' man

The former Tory leader claimed an article falsely accusing him of committing infidelity with a Downing Street caterer could have ruined his reputation.

Mr Aitken said he was with Mr Major in the Middle East when he started issuing writs.

"And I remember how terribly overwrought and angry he was," he said.

"He was angry, of course, there was an allegation which was wrong, which was that he was conducting an affair in 10 Downing Street, as prime minister, with a cook and that was just untrue.

"I think perhaps his pride didn't allow him to see that this was risky because the sort of allegation was also more broad as well as more specific and he could have had a weak point about something which had happened several years earlier."

'Back stabbing'

Mr Aitken also stressed that it did not believe the Conservatives were "the nasty party" - the image Theresa May told Tory activists they had to escape.

It was "full of very nice, very decent people who actually care about their country", he said.

"I think that at the very highest levels, there have been so much, sort of, back stabbing and rows that I can see how that cap could perhaps fit and it's unfortunate but I don't think it's real."

Mr Aitken said Iain Duncan Smith's description of himself as "a quiet man" did not mean he was "dull".

"I knew him pretty well in Parliament, when I was minister of state for defence. He was the outstanding backbencher in terms of the quality of his speeches."

Mr Aitken said the now Tory leader turned down the job of being his parliamentary private secretary on a "reason of high principle" - he wanted to vote against the Maastricht Treaty.

The full interview can be seen on BBC News 24's One to One programme at 0630 and 2040 BST on Saturday and at 0730 and 2140 on Sunday.