Clarke regrets 'colourful language'
The justice secretary has spoken about his public spat with the home secretary over the human rights act.
The row broke out when Theresa May claimed in a conference speech that a Bolivian national was allowed to stay in the UK because he had a cat.
Ken Clarke derided her comments as ‘complete nonsense'.
The matter was raised with Clarke when he appeared before the home affairs select committee today.
"This is like going on the Today programme," he joked when committee chairman Keith Vaz asked him if he had settled his dispute with the home secretary
"The dispute extended by an extra day, because I gave an interview to my local paper who with great efficiency published it 24 hours later than everyone else," he replied.
"The rather colourful language I used to describe things was probably not wise.
"The case quite clearly was not decided by the human rights act and had nothing to do with a cat
"The way in which it came out at at conference is just what happens at conferences when journalists are a bit short of a story."
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