He was Biden’s ‘plagiarism victim’, now he hails his victory

LONDON: When he first ran for the

White House

in 1987, Joe Biden’s

candidacy

was destroyed by a plagiarism row. But the British politician whose words he lifted has paid warm tribute to the new US president-elect.

Neil Kinnock

, a former leader of Labour party, said that Biden’s qualities include “wise, adult calm, and that will ensure great service to the USA and, indeed, to the world”. “He’s got a hell of a tough task in the present conditions of crisis,” Kinnock said in an email.


Biden was one of the favourites for the Democratic nomination ahead of the 1988 presidential election. But during the campaign in 1987, he was forced to withdraw after it emerged that he had borrowed heavily, without attribution, from a speech given earlier that year by Kinnock as Labour leader.

Kinnock recalled his last meeting with Biden in 2007, when Biden self-mockingly introduced the Welshman to his staff with the words: “Folks, meet my greatest ever speechwriter, Neil Kinnock!”