Prescott: It was right to free Lockerbie bomber

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The Scottish National Party seized on the former deputy prime minister's remark as proof that senior Labour figures were happy with the Edinburgh government's decision to release Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi last week.

Gordon Brown yesterday broke his silence on the affair to condemn the hero's welcome given to the convicted terrorist on his arrival in Tripoli.

But the Prime Minister refused to comment on the decision itself, allowing Labour's Scottish party to attack the SNP.

Today Mr Prescott became the first senior Labour figure in England to support the prisoner's release.

"I don't have any objections. If the man is dying, if compassion is part, and the medical authorities then get proof to that effect, then it's a decision for the legal authority," he told Sky News.

"Scotland has always had a great deal of independence of its legal authority, so we have to respect that decision."

Labour's former Scottish first minister Henry McLeish has also backed the decision, although his successor Jack McConnell condemned the SNP.