| last updated: Friday 25 September 2009, 09:40am |
Ex -housekeeper considers PR
|
The Government is bracing itself for revelations from Baroness Scotland's former housekeeper after she turned to publicity guru Max Clifford for advice.
Tongan Loloahi Tapui, 27, was arrested by UK Border Agency officers in Chiswick, south west London, on Wednesday.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said she was questioned over alleged immigration offences and released on bail until October.
Officials also arrested Serbian-born solicitor Alexander Zivancevic, 40, a man she claims is her husband.
Mr Clifford said the couple had turned to him for help after unflattering media reports about their marriage.
He said: 'They have been together for years, they were living together for years before they married and they go to the same church. So far no-one has heard their version of events.'
Earlier this week, Lady Scotland was fined £5,000 for employing a housekeeper with no right to work in the UK.
She has held on to her job despite the protest resignation of her parliamentary private secretary, Stephen Hesford, MP for Wirral West.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered her strong support, stressing that she had acted 'in good faith'.
The UK Border Agency launched a probe after it emerged that a Tongan citizen paid by Lady Scotland to look after her west London home had overstayed her student visa by several years.
The incident is particularly embarrassing because, as a Home Office minister, Lady Scotland had helped guide the immigration law through Parliament.
She also inflamed the row by comparing her error with forgetting to pay the Congestion Charge in London.
© Independent Television News Limited 2009. All rights reserved.
