Sacked prisons chief to sue Howard

'It is the Home Secretary's cowardly, dishonourable and dissembling response to the Parkhurst escape which may now prove fatal to him' - Leading article, page

Embattled Michael Howard vowed to clear his name last night in the face of a High Court writ from Derek Lewis, the sacked director of the Prison Service, implicitly accusing the Home Secretary of having misled Parliament.

Mr Howard was last night said by aides to be "relishing" the prospect of meeting his critics head on in today's Commons debate, amid signs that he still has strong support among Tory MPs. As part of a concerted effort by Government strategists to deflect the attacks on Mr Howard, Conservative Central Office issued a series of rebuttals of allegations made by the Labour leader Tony Blair and his Home Affairs spokesman Jack Straw.

But Mr Lewis' writ for unlawful dismissal presents the gravest threat to date to the Home Secretary's career. It flies in the face of Mr Howard's assertion to the Commons that he played no part in the removal of John Marriott, the Parkhurst prison governor, after the escape of three top- security prisoners. And it contains a damning catalogue of 12 alleged incidents of ministerial interference in Prison Service operations and business.They include delaying security improvements and changing them, interfering in staff relations and in prison discipline - and a requirement that Mr Lewis meet Mr Howard and others at the Home Office an average of once a day to discuss operational matters.

Not only has Mr Howard always denied interfering in operational matters, the writ claims that to do so breaches the terms under which the Prison Service Agency was set up.

Mr Lewis is seeking special damages for loss of his pounds 125,000 a year salary under a revised contract which was due to end in September 1996. His combative stance has clearly ended any lucrative severance package that he might have received had he gone quietly.

Within hours of Mr Lewis' bombshell, the increasingly isolated Home Secretary was dealt another embarrassing blow. Geoffrey Keeys, one of the four non- executive members of the Prisons Board, resigned in protest at Mr Lewis' treatment and a second, Urmila Banerjee, said she was considering her position.

Although Mr Lewis' actions seriously undermine Mr Howard's claim that he bears no responsibility for the Parkhurst debacle and the crisis in the prison service, last night he said his only concern was to get at the truth. "For me it is matter of getting the record straight, clearing the air, and creating the conditions for the operational independence that the Prison Service needs," he told the Independent.

But his court action has the potential for far greater damage. Under the rules of disclosure, Mr Lewis could obtain access to the thousands of documents considered by the Learmont inquiry - many of which are believed to point to ministerial meddling.

Twelve accusations, page 3