MAYOR Ken Livingstone has called for shamed former Westminster council Tory leader Dame Shirley Porter to be investigated for perjury.

In a letter to the attorney general Lord Goldsmith the mayor demanded an "urgent investigation" into whether Dame Shirley had lied in court during the 'homes for votes' scandal.

Dame Shirley oversaw the 1987 scandal, in which council homes were sold to potential Tory voters at a fraction of their market value.

Two years ago, Dame Shirley and her family - heirs to the Tesco empire - agreed to pay £12.3 million in cash as a settlement to the council over the affair, despite saying under oath in court that she was worth only £300,000.

The payout was also significantly less than the £27 million originally levied as a surcharge.

The Mayor's intervention follows reports that Dame Porter had recently bought a Mayfair flat estimated to have cost £1.5 million, after she returned from 12 years of exile in Israel.

Mr Livingstone wrote: "Until now Ms Porter has lived abroad and it has therefore not been possible to pursue this aspect of her case. There is no longer such a constraint.

"In its judgement on the case of 19 December 1997, the Court of Appeal Criminal Division found that Ms Porter had lied in her evidence to them given under oath, just as she had lied to the Auditor."

He said Londoners had been stunned by Dame Shirley's attempts to evade paying her surcharge.

"Throughout the homes-for-votes scandal there was a suspicion that Shirley Porter hid her real fortune," the mayor said.

"Since the announcement of the partial settlement of her surcharge there have been strong grounds for believing that she misrepresented the scale of her wealth in order to escape the full cost of her debt.

"Given that Dame Porter has chosen to purchase a property in London and is therefore presumably likely to be available for investigation I would ask that you urgently look into taking steps to bring this matter to a conclusion."

Money recovered from Dame Shirley after the affair was invested in affordable housing.