Buff Hoon: Out and About...

I don't know where Bob was in the campaign?

I visited 30 odd constituencies and travelled the country from North to South.
This was not an issue in the election campaign. I'm amazed...

[Interviewer cuts in, gobsmacked]

What, Tony Blair's leadership and Iraq [guffaw], weren't an issue during this election campaign, where were you?!

Hoon retorts:

Not on the doorstep, not talking to Labour voters and supporters I assure you.
It amy have been an issue here in Westminster, and amongst sophisticated political journalists like yourself.
Not out there on the country, not in any of the 30 seats I visited...

Former Defence Secretary Goeff Hoon is denying that 9.5 per cent fall in his vote in his Ashfield constituency, central England, at the last week's general election was due to a backlash against the war.

"I really don't think that change has anything at all do with the war in Iraq," he said. "It may be to do with the national trend or the number of candidates in Ashfield," he was quoted saying by the local weekly, Mansfield Today, Wednesday.