Penitent Huhne: 'So sorry that I lied and lied again to those I love'

- Acknowledges that he should have owned up to wrong-doing earlier- Said he hopes to heal relationship with his children
To be sentenced: Chris Huhne at Southwark Crown Court
12 March 2013
WEST END FINAL

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Hours before he was jailed for eight months, disgraced ex-Cabinet minister Chris Huhne apologised that he "lied and lied again" to those he loved.

In Press interviews he said he felt "awful that people I love have been dragged into this gruelling experience".

But he insisted that he had never been a bully in his private life, despite former wife Vicky Pryce's claim that he coerced her into taking his speeding penalty points.

He told The Guardian: "I am sorry. I want to say that to family, to friends, to constituents and to colleagues, and more broadly to everybody who cares passionately about the causes I care about, including saving the planet for our children and our grandchildren."

And he admitted to Channel 4: "I certainly lied and lied again, and part of it was about saving my career but it was also partly to try and avoid the consequences for my family."

The former Energy Secretary told C4 that "it seems crazy that what is on the face of it - without realising the full legal consequences - a fairly trivial issue of exchanging speeding points with your wife can spin into this massive, devastating set of consequences for family, for career and for everything you really care about."

He accepted that his political career is "very clearly over", but said he believed he had "other things to offer, doing other things" in the future.

"I regret that I didn't own up earlier on and hopefully would've dealt with it and got it out of the way," added Huhne. "And I think obviously there have been great consequences as a result of that. We will have to see what the future holds but, but I will hope for the best."

Huhne acknowledged that he should have owned up to wrong-doing as soon as allegations were made, but said it was "easy to rationalise" his initial denials by thinking that something would turn up to prevent "a ridiculously small misjudgment" from destroying his career.

He told The Times: "Going to jail is a fairly small bit of the total penalty. What was really painful was losing the one job I really wanted to do. Climate change is something I care passionately about.

"I've had three careers and I will have to find a fourth. Lawmakers can be many things, but they cannot be lawbreakers."

He added that he hoped Pryce would be acquitted. "I didn't want her to go to jail, I told the kids and everybody else that. Revenge eats you up. It does worse things to you than to the person you are attempting to attack."

Explaining why he changed his plea to guilty when his case finally came to trial, he told the Guardian: "I did not want to go to court and lie. I did not want to perjure myself further."

He added that "going into court in a bloody battle with my ex-wife, who is the mother of my three lovely children, would have been dreadful", and said he had been hoping she would be found not guilty.

Mr Huhne said he felt "awful" at his family being dragged into the affair, and said they now needed "time and space to get over this".

"I am least hopeful that the relationships with my children that suffered most at the time of the break-up and divorce can be slowly healed, and some of them are slowly healing," he said. "That, for me, is the most encouraging thing that can come out of all this."

Huhne added: "Of course I do not want to go to prison. Losing freedom hurts, but I understand this is the normal sentence for the offence of passing on speeding points. I will not be the first person to go to prison, and I will not be the last.

"As to the future, I can draw some consolation in that - unlike some people in politics that have only been in politics, as a special adviser or as MP or minister - this is my third career. I know I can do other things because I have done them. It gives me a certain ability to have the confidence that, with the trust and help of others, I can do something positive at the end of this process."

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