Lynne Featherstone

An error by Chris’s office led to a real argument on the Politics Show. A document entitled ‘Calamity Clegg‘ was thrust into Chris’s face. It was a briefing document – but clearly the title was totally unacceptable. Chris looked shocked as he clearly hadn’t seen it before. But it heralded some testy exchanges between the two.

Since the program, there is an apology from Chris’s office up on the website:

An Apology on Behalf of the Chris Huhne Campaign Team
On behalf of Chris Huhne’s campaign, I sincerely apologise that a background briefing document of quotations from Nick Clegg on public services reform and proportional representation was sent out with a wholly inappropriate title. There is no excuse for this. The document title had not been approved before the document was sent out and neither Chris nor I were aware of it. In no way does the title of the document as sent to the Politics Show represent Chris Huhne’s opinion and he completely dissociates himself from it.

Chris believes that there is no place for personal criticism in a legitimate contest – but that showing a lack of clarity or inconsistency is permissible. He is therefore seeking permission from the returning officer to put the document in the public domain under the amended title “Nick Clegg in the media on public services reform and proportional representation.”

All team members have now been reminded of the absolute need both to refrain from any personal attacks and to obtain sign off on all documents.
Anna Werrin, Campaign Manager

Comments

1. LG Test Blog says:

   19 November 2007 at 2:59 am

   Anyone who’s seen The Thick Of It would have had a wry smile upon hearing the excuse that this was created by an ‘over zealous researcher’…
2. William says:

   19 November 2007 at 10:00 am

   What a flurry of blog postings in the last 24 hours!

   I may be in a minority here, but my reaction to all this is why does the Huhne camp let the Clegg team get away with their negative campaigning?

   Evidence?

   [a] Clegg’s Guardian piece last time – which he hasn’t apologised for or blamed on an intern :-)

   [b] The nasty anonymous Howard Muckle blog. It ran an exclusive about people backing Clegg. How did it get that information unless the Clegg campaign is feeding anonymous attack blogs?

   [c] Linda Jack.
3. John says:

   19 November 2007 at 9:21 pm

   Ok so the leadership choice is between a gun slinging, flesh eating, name calling aggressor and some slippery character one who does a good hurt impression when attacked?

   Hmm! Difficult choice!

   What was the quote: I think there is a danger in an internal contest of saying things to each other which our opponents will use against me when I become leader!
   …..well something like that anyway!