Neil Kinnock arriving at court to explain his 103mph drive on the M11

THE former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, arriving in Saffron Walden, Essex, yesterday where he received a seven-day ban for driving at 103mph in a Ford Granada on the M11 in January. Kinnock, 51, of Ealing, west London, who pleaded guilty by post but was ordered to appear, told Saffron Walden magistrates he had been in a hired car. 'I was not used to it, which might be why I was exceeding the limit by quite so much, which I regret,' he said. He asked magistrates to take into account the fact that he needed to drive to leave the Commons late at night and that he drove 18,000 miles a year. He was fined pounds 140.

Photographs on pages 1 and 3: Peter Macdiarmid

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