MP: 'No bad blood with Kay Burley'

Labour MP Chris Bryant has said that he has "no bad blood" with Sky News host Kay Burley after a fractious on-air exchange.

Yesterday, Bryant accused Burley of being "a bit dim" after she pressed him to provide evidence that phone-hacking techniques were "endemic" in the newspaper industry.

The MP pointed to a report published by the Information Commissioner that identified in excess of 1,000 cases.

Writing in a comment piece in The Independent, Bryant said that he criticised Burley because she "appeared not to have read into" the phone-hacking story.

Later in the interview, Burley also implied that Bryant could have avoided having his phone hacked by changing his answering machine PIN number.

"My PIN had nothing to do with my phone being hacked," he said in the comment piece.

"Someone phoned Orange, my mobile network provider, and tried to pretend to be me in order to gain access to my voicemails.

"There are lots of ways to hack a phone and that is why I called for a debate on this matter because I don't think it has been discussed properly."

Despite the on-air confrontation, Bryant stressed that he does not have "any bad blood with Kay or any media organisations".

However, he added: "My interpretation of a television journalist is someone who is independent. Kay Burley seemed to have made up her mind about this story before we went on air. She had taken a view that it was not important.

"After I came off air I had lots of texts and emails and I know that it has been doing the rounds on Twitter too. I know that people are congratulating me for taking her on. It seems she is famed for rubbing people up the wrong way, but I was not aware of that before I went on air.

"I didn't even know who I would be speaking with until she introduced me, so it is not as if I went on with a plan to argue with her. In any case, I think I was rather charming. I even said, 'if you don't mind me saying so...' after I called her dim."