London - The former Labour chancellor, Mr Denis Healey, yesterday came to the defence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott.
Lord Healey, also known as "Bruiser Healey", argued: "Wouldn't you hit someone if they hit you? I think he was quite right to punch him back.
"I had the same experience myself once at the Walthamstow by-election when I was defence secretary and a gang from the British Union of Fascists started throwing flour bombs at us."
Lord Healey (83) told BBC Radio 5 Live's midday news that one of the men tried to "brush" a colleague aside, so he sprang into action.
"I knocked him off the platform and he fell on a journalist in the front row of the hall and broke his spectacles," he explained. "I'd have punched him if I'd had any trouble with him."