Kennedy rejects drinking image as 'caricature' of the Commons

Charles Kennedy rejected as a "caricature" suggestions that he was a heavy drinker after the Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman apologised for questioning him too persistently on the issue.

In an interview broadcast on Thursday – a day after the row over the BBC2 Newsnight interview – the Liberal Democrat leader insisted that suggestions he was a heavy drinker were unfair.

Challenged on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme, he said: "I've never made the slightest secret about the fact I am instinctively a sociable person, and that means I enjoy a drink with friends and colleagues as and when."

He was questioned about his drinking habits by the Woman's Hour presenter, Martha Kearney, who is also the political editor of Newsnight, in an interview recorded before the interview with Mr Paxman.

The Woman's Hour interview, with Mr Kennedy and his fiancée Sarah Gurling, was recorded to mark their wedding today at the House of Commons. Ms Gurling, the sister of Mr Kennedy's best friend, James, and a long-standing party campaigner, dismissed the suggestion that her husband-to-be had any kind of a problem.

But she said she hoped to be a calming influence on the Liberal Democrat leader. "I think it's probably fair in that maybe we are both at a point in our lives when we are looking forward to the next stage and maybe it has been calming but I wouldn't say I was, as the image is sometimes portrayed.

"Reputations that get out there – as I know from what's been reported about me – aren't necessarily correct ones. It's a normal fun life really."

Mr Kennedy added: "I do think there is a great deal of caricature around the House of Commons. It is just that kind of place."

Senior colleagues defended the party leader after he was pressed repeatedly about his drinking habits on Wednesday's edition of Newsnight. Mr Paxman, was forced to apologise for asking "one question too many on drink".

A senior Liberal Democrat said the line of questioning on Newsnight was "a little demeaning". And he added: "Charles has conducted himself very well over this. He is quite relaxed about it."