Gordon Brown said 'no further action is necessary' but Chris Grayling, the Conservative home affairs spokesman called for the minister to go, saying she is in a 'pretty untenable position,' being the government's 'most senior law officer.'

'I think it's a question before Gordon brown,' Grayling said.

New laws brought in by the Labour government stipulate stringent punishment for employers found to be hiring illegal immigrants, and Scotland was spared a possible two-year jail sentence after she pleaded she had not broken the law on purpose.

'No Attorney General in modern political history has faced such a scandal,' the pro-Conservative Daily Mail said.