Nigella Lawson: Clegg Fails To Condemn Assault

Nick Clegg has failed to condemn Charles Saatchi for his assault on his wife Nigella Lawson outside a restaurant in Mayfair.

Mr Clegg said Saatchi's actions, for which the millionaire advertising guru accepted a police caution, could have been "fleeting".

The Deputy Prime Minister was asked on his weekly LBC 97.3 show Call Clegg, by a listener called Elizabeth, how he would have reacted if he had been there.

He said: "What a difficult question. I find it so difficult to imagine... I don't know what happened, I'm like you, I don't know what happened.

"When you see a couple having an argument, most people just assume that the couple will resolve it themselves. If, of course, something descends into outright violence that is something different.

"I just don't know, there was this one photograph, I don't know whether that was a fleeting thing. I'm really sorry Elizabeth, I am at a loss to put myself into that position without knowing exactly (what happened).

"You are asking me to comment on photographs everybody has seen in the papers - we don't know if that was a fleeting moment, so I'd rather not comment on a set of events that I wasn't."

Pictures emerged at the weekend of Saatchi outside Scotts in Mayfair with his hands around his wife’s throat. Another showed him tweaking her nose.

Lawson, 53, the daughter of former chancellor Lord Lawson, who has found fame through her culinary expertise as a "domestic godess", was reportedly seen weeping following the episode.

Mr Clegg's response to the question drew instant fire from campaign groups and MPs forcing him to issue a statement clarifying his comments.

Mr Clegg said he condemned domestic violence and that he would always "try and protect the weaker person".

He said: "But I was asked a very specific question about how I would have reacted to a specific incident which I did not see.

"I said I did not know how I would have reacted to that specific incident because I do not know what happened.

"The point I was making is that I don't know what other people in the restaurant saw and I don't want to make a judgement on their reaction."

Following Mr Clegg's broadcast, the End Violence Against Women Coalition tweeted: "Reported response of Nick Clegg about whether he'd have intervened in #Saatchi violence is terrible - need leadership from politicians."

Shadow home office minister Diana Johnson said Mr Clegg's comments were "disgraceful" and called for a debate in the Commons "on how seriously the Government take the issue of domestic violence".

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "Nick Clegg revealed how little he understands violence against women this morning."

She added: "Ministers should show they are prepared to condemn this kind of violence against women and that they recognise the seriousness of domestic abuse. Nick Clegg completely failed to do that this morning."

Initially Mr Saatchi had dismissed his actions on June 9 as a "playful tiff" following a heated argument between the couple about their children. He said he had grabbed her neck to emphasise his point.

However, earlier this week the 70-year-old voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution, explaining it was to avoid having the incident "hanging over all of us".

Mr Saatchi said his wife, to whom he will have been married for 10 years in September, had been crying because they both disliked arguing and not because she had been hurt.

A Liberal Democrat peer hit out at what he said was the "leniency shown to Mr Saatchi when he half-strangled his wife".

Lord Avebury raised the issue in the upper chamber while Lawson's father - Tory former chancellor Lord Lawson of Blaby - shook his head.

In the Commons, Liberal Democrat home office minister Jeremy Browne said domestic violence was "a very serious crime".

He rejected suggestions the case showed there was "one law for the rich and famous and another for everybody else".

Mr Clegg's remarks come after a report criticised Mr Clegg for failing to order a formal inquiry into sexual harassment allegations against the Lib Dem’s former chief executive Lord Rennard.