Former Labour leader Lord Kinnock has said that he hopes that in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, no politician will seek to "fawn upon" owners of influential papers.

Speaking to John Humphrys, he said that the influence of media organisations like News International had "contaminated" the political culture of the UK for decades.

The willingness of politicians to follow the "judgements and prejudices" of media magnates had led to the "hubris" in people like Rupert Murdoch, he argued.

"It may be that in the true Greek fashion, what we are now witnessing is at least a partial nemesis," he said.

Lord Kinnock said that the concentration of media ownership "throws into doubt the real independence and freedom for the whole of the press".

"There are systems which would ensure that there was much less concentration of ownership and singularity of opinion, and that would be healthy for our democracy," he said.

"I see no reason at all," he argued, why the rules of impartiality governing the broadcast media, could not be extended to the newspapers.

Get in touch with Today via email , Twitter or Facebook or text us on 84844.