British Conservative Party leader left red-faced

A little more than a fortnight after announcing draconian policies on immigration, the British Conservative Party leader has admitted his grandfather almost certainly entered and lived in Britain illegally.

A fortnight ago Michael Howard's unauthorised biographer, Michael Crick, unearthed the story from the bowels of the Public Records Office in London.

His decision to check the facts with Howard's press secretary seems to have cost him his scoop - in a damage-limitation exercise Howard gave the story in a sympathetic interview in the Daily Mail.

Examining Howard's father's application for British citizenship in 1947, Crick found Bernard Howard had claimed both his parents had died in Romania. In fact, his father, Michael Howard's grandfather, was alive and well and had been living in London since the 1930s.

The explanation: he had entered Britain as an illegal immigrant, which his son did not want to draw to the attention of the authorities.