Image copyright PA Image caption Clifford is serving an eight-year jail sentence for sex offences

Disgraced former celebrity publicist Max Clifford has suffered a cardiac arrest in hospital after collapsing in prison.

The 74-year-old had been serving eight years in a Cambridgeshire jail for historical sex offences.

It is understood he collapsed in his cell last Thursday while trying to clean it, then again the following day.

His daughter Louise told the Mail on Sunday he was in the critical care unit and was in a "bad way".

Cleaning cell

A Prison Service spokesperson said the safety and welfare of people in custody was its "top priority". Clifford was serving his sentence at HMP Littlehey.

His daughter said that he was trying to clean his prison cell when he collapsed, adding "it was just too much".

"Next day he collapsed again and was unconscious for several minutes - though he doesn't know how long.

"He was seen by a nurse, who insisted he must be transferred to a local hospital. That's where he had his cardiac arrest, later on Friday."

In May 2014, Clifford was jailed after being convicted of a number of charges under Operation Yewtree - the Met Police investigation set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.