Tommy Sheridan, the permatanned socialist firebrand, was charged with perjury last night over allegations made during his successful libel trial against the News of the World.

The former leader of the Scottish Socialist Party was charged at Gayfield Square police station in Edinburgh after being arrested by three plain-clothes officers just minutes after finishing his Sunday morning radio phone-in show.

The officers screeched into the Talk 107FM car park in an unmarked white Mercedes and blocked Mr Sheridan’s path as he was preparing to leave for the day. Forty miles away, nine officers searched Mr Sheridan’s home in Glasgow where his wife Gail was also detained.

Following his release last night after six hours of questioning, Mr Sheridan described the perjury charge as “farcical” and claimed that he was the victim of a “political witch hunt”.

The charge against Mr Sheridan came more than a year after police began an investigation into allegations of perjury during the politician’s libel battle. Detectives were ordered to begin an inquiry after the trial judge raised concerns about “contradictory evidence” during the case.

Mr Sheridan was awarded £200,000 damages after a jury ruled that he had been libelled by a series of stories, including claims that he was a “swinger” who took part in orgies and habitually cheated on his wife.

The trial electrified Scotland and made the Sheridans the country’s most glamorous political couple. Mrs Sheridan told the jury that she would have murdered her husband had the allegations been true. The News of the World, whose parent company, News International, owns The Times, is appealing against the verdict. After the publicity over the trial Mr Sheridan lost his seat in the Scottish Parliament.

In bizarre scenes, Mr Sheridan, 43, found himself arrested just minutes after telling listeners that police had every right to strike to win a better pay deal. In between his “king of the swingers” jingle and adverts, he also found time to discuss the scandal of the EU budget being passed unaudited and whether it was right to vote for Leon Jackson to winThe X Factor television show purely because he was a Scot.

He wrapped up his Citizen Tommy show at 1pm and told colleagues that he was hoping to watch Celtic play Inverness Caledonian Thistle on TV. Dressed in jeans, a jumper and a black overcoat, he walked towards his Honda Civic outside the office in the South Gyle industrial estate, but as he reached it a white Mercedes estate screeched into the car park and parked in front of him.

Two plain-clothes officers who had been sitting around the corner listening to his show, asked Mr Sheridan to get into the car, while a third sat behind the wheel. After chatting for several minutes, the unmarked car drove away. “Huge news,” announced Joe Odber, the station’s deputy news editor, at 1.40pm. Interrupting the Sunday Kickabout football show, he told listeners: “Tommy Sheridan has been arrested outside Talk 107.”

Gerry McDade, co-presenter of Sunday Kickabout, saw the arrest. He said: “All of a sudden I saw this white car speed into the car park, slam to a halt and immediately two guys came out of the back of it and approached Tommy. Tommy is one of the calmest people I know and as ever he looked completely unfazed.”

Last night Mr Sheridan protested his innocence and said that the inquiry had been “orchestrated and influenced by the powerful reach of the Murdoch empire”.

He added: “I look forward to going back and hugging my wife and my two-year-old child, who has had to go through the very very frightening experience of having nine police officers going through her home.”

The Times reported three weeks ago that police were about to arrest Mr Sheridan. Until yesterday, officers had yet to interview him or any of the witnesses who testified on his behalf at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

She said, he said . . .

Tommy Sheridan’s libel case produced some memorable moments:

Gail Sheridan “Every weekend when he was supposed to be hanging from the chandeliers he has been with me” To her husband: “You’re like a monkey . . . Anybody that was rolling an ice cube round your body would have had a hairball in their throat” If claims of her husband’s infidelity were true, she said: “You’d be in the [River] Clyde with a piece of concrete tied around you and I’d be in court for your murder. You believe that right now”

Tommy Sheridan on why none of the women who claimed to have slept with him had mentioned his hairy body: “I’m sure if it’s challenged, my lord would allow me to physically derobe and I would be prepared to do that” Addressing the jury: “You will hear of my addiction to Scrabble and sunbeds, not champagne, cocaine and swingers' clubs”

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