A disgraced barrister and part-time judge who lied to police investigating former Cabinet minister Chris Huhne’s speeding points scandal was removed from the judiciary yesterday.

Constance Briscoe is currently serving a 16-month jail sentence for trying to pervert the course of justice over the investigation into how Mr Huhne passed speeding points to his then-wife Vicky Pryce a decade earlier.

Ms Briscoe was jailed for twice as long as Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce after it emerged that she had helped friend and neighbour Ms Pryce to reveal information about Mr Huhne’s actions to newspapers after the couple split in 2010.

The court heard that Ms Briscoe was intent on bringing about Mr Huhne’s downfall and knew how to manipulate the criminal justice system to her advantage.

Jailing her, Mr Justice Baker said that her conduct had struck “at the heart of our much-cherished system of criminal justice.”