Westminster Council says the courts have frozen millions of pounds-worth of assets belonging to Dame Shirley Porter, in connection with the 'homes-for-votes' scandal.

In a statement released today the council said UK courts had made freezing orders against assets owned by both Dame Shirley and her son, John Prter.

It said the order had been made 'in order to assist the Council in the enforcement of its judgement for £37 million which Dame Shirley has refused to pay'.

"The Council believes that it has a good claim against the assets frozen by the Court orders," the statement went on.

Dame Shirley claims the frozen money is not hers, and that she in fact only has control over very limited resources, having disclosed only £300,000 when ordered to last year.

The heiress of Jack Cohen's Tesco empire was reported in 2001 to have a fortune worth at least £70million.

Shirley Porter was in charge at Westminster in the 1980s when the authority was found guilty of gerrymandering for selling council homes to potential Conservative voters.

The district auditor, John Magill, who uncovered the scale of the plot, imposed a surcharge on the council of £27million. With interest that amount has now increased to £37million.

In December 2001 the Law Lords found that both Dame Shirley and her Deputy, David Weeks, had acted corruptly, and that they should jointly be responsible for paying the surcharge.

Law web site The Lawyer reports that Stephenson Harwood, the firm hired by Westminster Council to investigate the lost millions, has secured disclosure orders against the Dame, her son, and 'several companies linked to Dame Shirley'.