Attorney General Baroness Scotland is to be fined £5,000 after being found to have employed a housekeeper who was not legally allowed to work in the UK.

The UK Border Agency said she took steps to check Tongan Loloahi Tapui's right to work but had not kept a copy of documents, as required by law.

No 10 said Gordon Brown took the case seriously but did not think she had to resign as it was "inadvertent".

But both the Tories and the Lib Dems said her position looked "untenable".

Baroness Scotland, the government's chief legal adviser who oversees criminal prosecutions in England and Wales, helped take the legislation on employing illegal workers through Parliament when she was a Home Office minister.

Apology

She issued a statement saying: "I fully accept the findings of the UK Borders Agency that I made a technical breach of the rules. I apologise for having made this inadvertent error.

"Having examined the documents I accept entirely I should've taken copies of them. I sincerely apologise for my error."

In a statement, Downing Street said: "The UK Border Agency is satisfied she did not knowingly employ an illegal worker. She examined documents of her status. She paid tax and National Insurance on her earnings. She employed her new cleaner in good faith.

"But regrettably she did not retain copies of the documents proving the right to work she was given. As a result she is paying an administrative penalty."

It added that breaches of the law were taken "seriously" and the PM had consulted the cabinet secretary about whether the ministerial code had been breached.

But because she had not knowingly employed an illegal worker and had checked documents Mr Brown believed " no further action" was necessary.

However shadow home secretary Chris Grayling told the BBC the law was very clear - that employers could not be "inadvertently innocent". "I think her position is pretty untenable to be frank," he told the BBC.

'Very difficult'

He said because she was a senior minister who had stood up to argue for the law when taking it through the House of Lords, "you have to ask, can she possibly stay in that position?"

"I think it's a sign, frankly, of Downing Street not showing leadership over this issue," he added.

For the Liberal Democrats Chris Huhne said the attorney general should be expected to know the law and her position "now looks untenable".

He added: "I think it's very very difficult for her to stay to be honest. I don't know the full story yet.

"But the reality is for the chief law officer of this country of the government, who is responsible for upholding the law, for the person who actually drafted this legislation when she was a Home Office minister, for a law maker to be a law breaker ... all of these put her position in extreme peril."

Baroness Scotland was defended by Commons leader Harriet Harman, who told the BBC it was an "administrative error": "I don't think her position is untenable, she's an excellent attorney general and will carry on doing her job."

Civil penalty

The UK Border Agency began an investigation after the story was published in the Daily Mail newspaper.

The agency's chief executive Lin Homer said the agency was satisfied Baroness Scotland "did not knowingly employ an illegal worker" and had taken steps to check documents "provided to her as proof of right to work in the UK".

But she added: "However, the law requires that employers must keep copies of documents proving the right to work in the UK and in this instance the employer failed to meet this requirement."

She said Baroness Scotland would pay a "civil penalty of £5,000" - the maximum £10,000 fine was not usually imposed in cases where employers co-operated and had no history of employing illegal workers.

By BBC