'Live by the sword, die by the sword'

On Sunday 19 April Andrew Marr interviewed Lord Kinnock, former Labour Leader.

Please note 'The Andrew Marr Show ' must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

'Live by the sword, die by the sword': Lord Kinnock's message to the 'repulsive people' who planned Labour's online smear campaign.

Lord Kinnock, former Labour Leader

ANDREW MARR:

Neil Kinnock we have to start I think, with the political story of the week, the smear story which has caused, your party, the Labour Government, terrible damage.

LORD KINNOCK:

It has, and that's inevitable. When people get involved, in this kind of activity, the effect, on the standing of democratic politics generally, but specifically, the party with which they're associated, is always going to be damaging, and I hope everybody else, in all parties, will learn a lesson from this.

First of all, yes, it's always a minority, secondly you always get caught. And thirdly, we live in a technological age which means that you live by the sword, you die by the sword. If only they'd die politically that's fine with me. The awful thing is the damage inflicted on the Government of this country.

ANDREW MARR:

Were you surprised - I mean you've know Gordon Brown for many many years - that he has surrounded himself by people like this?

LORD KINNOCK:

You accumulate, in a long period of Government, an assortment of people. Some are near angels, some are near devils, or real devils and most are somewhere in between.

In the reality of politics, the pressures of - if you like - the bunker, and I don't think that it's possible for a senior politician to find the time when preoccupied with the realities of office to wheedle out, all the time, people who might be questionable, even when they get advice so to do.

Now I'm sure that the most regretful person in the whole United Kingdom this morning is Gordon, that he didn't toss anybody out, but no judgement about his values or his engagement, or his kind of politics should be made on the basis of these repulsive people.

ANDREW MARR:

You don't think he's...Yeah. But he surrounded himself with them.

LORD KINNOCK:

I don't think surrounded himself...

ANDREW MARR:

...Well he hired them...

LORD KINNOCK:

There are a couple there. I don't think that's surrounding. But I don't want to quibble over that, any more than he would. The fact of the matter - they were there, they were up to dirty tricks...

ANDREW MARR:

...You...

LORD KINNOCK:

...And other people, people including Ray Collins by the way, who I think is entirely innocent, are now being sucked into this maelstrom.

ANDREW MARR:

But you would never have hired these kinds of people or given them any houseroom to...

LORD KINNOCK:

Well they're not my kind of people. And they probably wouldn't work for me in any case.

ANDREW MARR:

Yeah?

LORD KINNOCK:

Yeah.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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