Daily Mail insists Harriet Harman campaign is not a vendetta

The Daily Mail has insisted its stories about senior Labour politicians' historic links with a paedophile rights group is not motivated by a political agenda.

The deputy Labour leader was a legal officer at the National Council for Civil Liberties, which was the predecessor to campaign group Liberty, from 1978 to 1982.

The NCCL granted "affiliate" status to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) which was a group campaigning to lower the age of consent.

Mail columnist Andrew Pierce rejected Ms Harman's claim that his newspaper was guilty of hypocrisy and called on her to apologise.