The new wife of the Labour MP who has brought a £1.5m defamation action has told a court: "He is the kindest person I have ever met."

Mr Wray's former wife Catherine claims the 64-year-old MP for Glasgow Baillieston "battered and abused" her during their marriage.

She claims he punched her, held a knife to her neck and grabbed her by the throat.

Mr Wray, who contests her claims, is suing Associated Newspapers for £1.5m at the Court of Session in Edinburgh for defamation over an account of their marriage which appeared in the Mail on Sunday in 1998. The newspaper says its story is true.

Catherine, 50, of Milngavie, Glasgow, became the second wife of ex-boxer Mr Wray when they married in 1985. They separated 10 years later.

'Wrong portrayal'

Solicitor Laura Wray, 38, told the court that the portrayal of her husband in the newspaper was not one she recognised.

When asked by the judge Lord Johnston if there was anything wrong with him, she replied: "He is terribly untidy and he has an obsession for DIY projects which he doesn't get round to finishing."

Mrs Wray said she had first met her husband in the House of Commons in 1994 through her work, and they remained in contact when she lobbied his support for a campaign over tobacco-related illness.

They eventually married when their divorces came through and she had a son, Frankie, in the summer of 1998.

She said: "I don't think he has ever lost his temper. We have had the odd argument over domestic matters."

A friend of Mr Wray's, Catherine Molloy, 43, told the court he had not wanted to marry his ex-wife.

"He was lonely and she was lonely. I think the two of them needed each other because they were lonely. She was desperate to get married," she said.

'Bulldozed' into marriage

Mr Wray wanted a wife who would make him "a plate of mince and tatties", she said, adding: "Katy was the opposite. All the years I knew her I never knew her to make a meal."

She told the court she had known Mr Wray since he was 18 and described him as "a gentleman".

In other evidence a former neighbour said she thought the MP had been "bulldozed" into a loveless marriage.

Kathleen Grant said, although she shared "a cup of tea and a blether" almost daily with Catherine Wray, her friend never claimed that her husband had assaulted her.

Mrs Grant went on to tell of Catherine Wray's "aggression" when she had been drinking.

Asked by the MP's lawyer, Leeona Dorrian QC to explain, Mrs Grant said: "Taunting and tantalising. On one occasion she actually offered her chin to Jimmy and said 'Why don't you hit me?' as if it was provocation."

The court has now heard all the evidence in the case. Lawyers for both sides are due to make their closing speeches on 22 February.