Lady Thatcher pays £165,000 bail for son

Margaret Thatcher has agreed to bail out her son after he was put under house arrest.

The former Prime Minister is reported to have paid the £165,000 Sir Mark needed to find after his court appearance last week. It is understood she agreed following a telephone call on her return to Britain on Friday from holiday in the US. The money will be paid within 36 hours.

It means Thatcher will be able to leave his Cape Town home for the first time since his arrest last week on suspicion of helping to plot an armed coup in Equatorial Guinea. Thatcher, 51, denies any involvement.

Reports that his mother needed to bail out Thatcher will raise new questions about his personal wealth. He was thought to be worth as much as £60 million - although friends said this was an exaggeration. Details of Lady Thatcher's intervention emerged as public relations specialist Lord Bell, who acts as spokesman for the family, insisted that Diane Thatcher, who has taken her children to her home town of Dallas, Texas, was not deserting her husband. Lord Bell said: "Diane will stay with her family in Dallas while she settles the children into school. People should not conclude that because she has not fixed her return that the marriage is over. It is not."