Tony Blair’s former spin doctor has revealed how he tried to help a tearful Charles Kennedy win his desperate battle with alcoholism.
Alastair Campbell has spoken of Mr Kennedy struggle with drink, claiming that the former MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, checked himself into expensive rehab and attended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings as he tried to beat his problem.
Mr Kennedy, past leader of the Liberal Democrats died last week age 55, from a massive haemorrhage linked to his alcoholism.
Mr Campbell, a former alcoholic himself, has told of his late-night talks with Kennedy during family visits to the Caol area, where the politician lived.
The pair had been personal friends since their twenties and developed a close bond over their shared addiction to drink, which Mr Campbell has managed to keep under control since a drunken arrest in 1986.
Mr Campbell said: “I can remember vividly the first time he said to me he had a real problem, he knew he had to do something about it and I believe he meant it.
“It was a few years ago, after he stopped being leader. It was in his constituency, where my family spent many an Easter, Christmas and New Year, and where Charles, his then wife Sarah and son Donald often joined us.
“After dinner Charles asked if I would go for a walk with him. It was getting dark, it was raining and we didn’t walk very far.
“He was on the verge of tears, then he said ‘just tell me again, how did you do it? You know – how you managed to go from all to nothing?’
“I nodded. Eventually he said, ‘I know I have to crack this thing once and for all, no messing, or else I am going to lose everything, so what do I do?'”
Mr Campbell continued: “I tried to be at his shoulder, its mental version, whenever that feeling of being yanked towards the bottle kicked in inside him.
“Sometimes I helped, and he told me so. Sometimes I didn’t because nobody could. That was certainly the case in his final days, as we know from a post-mortem examination that makes clear it was his alcoholism that ended his life.
“His memory will also be pushing me on to campaign for change, to fight for a new relationship between people and booze: one that has to be forged by politicians understanding
that unless we as a country face up to the damage being wreaked by addiction across families and comminutiues, overwhelming our NHS, tying up our police and filling up our
corts and prisons, then there will be many more Charles Kennedys.”