‘No choice’ but to take Huhne speeding points, says ex-wife

Breaking down in tears at Southwark Crown Court, Ms Pryce suggested it was not the only time in her marriage to Chris Huhne when he had pressured her into making decisions she regrets.

She said the former energy secretary had also pushed her into having an abortion in 1990 because it was “bad timing”.

Ms Pryce made her revelations as part of her evidence in court, where she denies perverting the course of justice by accepting Mr Huhne’s speeding points in 2003. She claims her ex-husband forced her, against her will, into taking the speeding points for him to avoid a driving ban which could have hurt his political prospects.

It looked like a fait accompli for me and for him. Vicky Pryce

“My husband was standing by the form…saying: ‘You have absolutely got to sign that. If you don’t, the implications will be considerable’,” she told the jury. She said Mr Huhne nominated her as the driver without consulting her, then pressured her into signing the form saying she was the driver.

“It looked like a complete fait accompli for me and for him. I had been worn down over a period of time and it looked to me like it was the only thing I could possibly do.

“It didn’t look to me like I had any choice at all in the matter so I took this pen and signed, protesting all the time, but I did it.”

The pair were due to stand trial together over perverting the course of justice with the points swap – until Mr Huhne dramatically changed his plea to guilty at the beginning of this week, admitting the swap, resigning as an MP and ending his political career.

Marital breakdown

In 2010, Ms Pryce and Mr Huhne’s marriage broke down after it emerged that he had been having an affair. In 2011, the “point-swapping” scandal hit the papers – after Ms Pryce revealed what had happened back in 2003 to Sunday Times political editor Isabel Oakeshott.

While Ms Pryce says she was forced into taking the points by Mr Huhne, he maintains that it was a deal which Ms Pryce only revealed in 2011 as a “revenge bid” after the politician left her for another woman.

But Ms Pryce told the court today the points swap had remained a bone of contention throughout their marriage.

“It really upset me, I thought it was morally repugnant,” she said. However, she said she had not divorced Huhne because she put her family first. The marriage eventually broke down when Mr Huhne admitted an affair with Carina Trimingham in 2010.

The court also heard of Ms Pryce’s “fragile, very depressed” state after the marriage broke up, as well as details of the emails between Ms Pryce and journalists which she said she was “not very proud of” in which she is described as wanting to “nail” her ex-husband.

The jury was also played recordings of telephone calls between Ms Pryce and Mr Huhne, in which Ms Pryce swears profusely, which were recorded in a bid to get evidence to back up her account of what happened.

Vicky Pryce apologises to jury for the swearing they’ve heard in taped calls – ‘Greeks swear a lot’ the Athens-born economist tells court.

— Andy Davies (@adavies4) February 7, 2013

Ms Pryce also went into intimate detail about her marriage break-up as well as some of the key events during the union, such as the abortion.

“That particular incident is one where I got accidentally pregnant and obviously wanted to keep the baby because it was healthy – in fact, I quite like babies, that’s why I have so many,” she said.

“He absolutely resisted it, saying it was bad timing, bad financially, bad for his career to be tied down again. And despite my protestations, he got me to have an abortion, which I have regretted ever since.”