THE attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith, was yesterday forced to admit to having had an affair with a prominent female lawyer.

The affair, which took place during the row over his advice on the legality of the Iraq war, is understood to have ended two years ago.

After inquiries by tabloid newspapers, Goldsmith issued a statement from America yesterday, where he is on an official trip with his wife Joy. “My wife knows all about this and has done for a long time; it is all in the past and we are both very happy. This is a private matter and my wife and I have no further comment,” he said.

Goldsmith, 57, who has four children and has been married for 32 years, was forced to admit to the relationship after he was confronted by a reporter, in the presence of his wife, in San Francisco.

A spokesman for the attorney-general in London said the news had come “like a bolt out of the blue”. In fact, rumours of the affair have been circulating in Whitehall since at least 2004.

Last night it was unclear what impact the disclosure would have on Goldsmith’s position. Downing Street sources said that it was a private matter and had no bearing on his ability to do his job.

MPs from other parties agreed. Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “I think people’s private affairs and extra-marital arrangements are their own business — as long as they are doing their job properly. Maybe it was different in the 1950s when it might have been a bit of a scandal.”

However, one source claimed the relationship did seem to have had a negative impact on Goldsmith’s ministerial duties. “He used to disappear off the radar for hours at a time. People just couldn’t get hold of him,” the legal source said.

The source added that Goldsmith had ended the affair after his wife found out about it. She is said to have threatened to divorce him unless he ended the liaison. Hollis is a leading criminal defence barrister. Brought up in Calcutta, where her grandfather had campaigned for independence with Mahatma Gandhi, she was educated at Cheltenham Ladies College. Her highest profile case was the prosecution of a man accused of stealing Victoria Beckham’s underwear, but as vice-chairwoman of the Bar Council’s diversity committee she has been identified with campaigns concerning the perceived discrimination against black and female barristers.

The relationship is understood to have begun following her divorce from her husband Andrew, a director of a medical company, with whom she has two teenage sons. Her friendship with the minister has been the subject of gossip in legal circles for some time. “She was pretty open about it. She wasn’t at all discreet,” said one lawyer. “She would park around the corner and collect him. They would then go off for the afternoon.”

Asked last week if she wanted to discuss the matter, she replied, “No. I’m afraid I don’t.”

The disclosure is likely to cause discomfort in Downing Street. Last week Sir Ken Macdonald, who as director of public prosecutions works directly for Goldsmith, was reported to have been involved in an affair with a female barrister.

Goldsmith refused to get involved amid allegations that Macdonald may have been guilty of a conflict of interest, saying it was “a private matter”. It will be the responsibility of Macdonald’s department to make the politically sensitive decision whether to bring prosecutions against key Downing Street aides or Labour party donors over the cash-for-peerages affair.

Goldsmith has insisted that he will have the final say in the decision. Opposition MPs claim he is in no position to make an objective judgment as he has been a donor to the Labour party and was awarded a seat in the House of Lords by Blair in 1999.

Goldsmith has had a torrid time since Blair appointed him legal adviser to the government in 2001. Three years later and at the time of the affair in 2004, he was facing calls to resign as Blair’s legal justification for going to war against Iraq began to unravel. It emerged that he had asked for, and accepted, Blair’s assurances that there were “strong factual grounds” backed up by “hard evidence” that Saddam had failed to comply with UN resolution 1441, requiring the Iraqi dictator to destroy his weapons of mass destruction. He was later accused of altering his advice on whether it was legal for Britain to join America in the Iraq invasion.

Critics claimed he had been “lent on” by Lord Falconer, the lord chancellor, to revise his views — a charge Goldsmith denied. Last December he found himself caught up in a further row after he announced that the Serious Fraud Office was going to drop a corruption investigation that implicated at least one member of the Saudi royal family. The Saudis had threatened to cut intelligence ties and suspend a lucrative defence contract with BAE Systems unless the inquiry was halted.

Goldsmith defended his move on the grounds that it was in “the national interest”. But critics once more accused him of compromising the principles of the law in the face of political pressure.

Norman Baker, a Liberal Democrat MP, said: “I think people’s private affairs are their own business — as long as they are doing their job properly. Maybe it was different in the 1950s when it might have been a scandal.”

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