Former minister Chris Huhne today claimed he had been the victim of a vendetta pursued by the “Murdoch press”.
Mr Huhne said journalists had only dug up dirt on him as “payback” after he spoke out on phone-hacking.
The former Liberal Democrat MP’s marriage fell apart in 2010 when the now defunct News of The World revealed his affair with a former aide.
The Sunday Times later reported how Mr Huhne convinced his wife, Vicky Pryce, to take speeding points on her licence for him before lying to police about it.
As a result both served two months in jail on charges of perverting the course of justice, leaving the former Energy Secretary’s political career in tatters.
Speaking on BBC radio today, he said: “The way in which this was specifically done was very clear payback for the fact that I had gone public on how the police should reopen the investigation into voicemail hacking in the Murdoch press.”
He went on to say that journalists had not only hacked his private voicemails but had paid a full-time investigator to follow him.
Mr Huhne admitted his misdemeanour meant he was “fair game” for an investigation, but he added “it’s not straight journalism.”
But the editor of The Sunday Times, Martin Ivens, described the claim as “bizarre”. He said: “The Sunday Times pursued a legitimate story of considerable public interest.”
Meanwhile Neville Thurlbeck, the News of The World reporter who exposed Mr Huhne’s affair, took to Twitter to hit back.
He said the ex-MP was not a “Murdoch press target” and that it had taken a year to persuade his editor to run the affair story.
Mr Thurlbeck added: “The ‘Murdoch press’ thought Huhne was such a political minnow, they didn’t want to run it. End of conspiracy theory.”
