Sheridan rubbishes video claims

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/5396828.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Politician Tommy Sheridan has condemned a tabloid newspaper's claim that it has videoed him admitting to visiting a swingers club.

The Solidarity MSP branded the News of the World story a "pack of lies".

In August, Mr Sheridan won his defamation case against the paper after it accused him of infidelity.

The News of the World said the secret video was recorded by George McNeilage who was the MSP's best man at his wedding to Gail.

The paper claims that Mr McNeilage taped the conversation on a camcorder hidden beneath some tiles while he was decorating the front room of his Glasgow home.

The News of the World states in its story that the videotape has been analysed and assessed by four leading authorities on voice analysis, including American Tom Owen who has worked on the verification of Osama Bin Laden tapes for the CIA.

A fictitious tape has been invented, concocted, and unleashed on a Scottish public sick to the back teeth of the News of the World's constant lies Tommy Sheridan But Mr Sheridan said the paper's story were "lies and smears".

He added: "They have a former friend whom I haven't spoken to for two years to tell lies about me.

"Mr McNeilage must be seriously hard up to lower himself to the gutter and co-operate against a former friend.

"A fictitious tape has been invented, concocted, and unleashed on a Scottish public sick to the back teeth of the News of the World's constant lies.

"They (the News of the World) will not forgive me for humiliating them.

'Lying rats'

"Their vendetta against me, my family and my political beliefs continues.

"They are trying to break me politically and personally. They will fail on both counts.

"My new party, Solidarity, grows daily while my relationship with my wife, Gail, is unbreakable."

At the start of September, Mr Sheridan cut his ties with the Scottish Socialist Party, which he had represented in the Scottish Parliament since 1999, and formed his own party, Solidarity.

Mr Sheridan vowed he would continue to fight the News of the World politically and would address a series of public meetings in Cumnock, Paisley and Dundee in the coming days.

He went on to accuse the paper of being "lying rats" who occupy the "stinking sewer of the journalistic world".