Ex-prisons chief opens door for Paxman to invest in ethical whisky
JEREMY PAXMAN has invested in a whisky distillery part owned by the former prisons chief at the centre of his infamous Michael Howard interview.
The former Newsnight presenter memorably skewered the former Home Secretary in a 1997 interview, asking him twelve times whether he had threatened to overrule Derek Lewis before firing him.
Mr Paxman, who presents University Challenge, and Mr Lewis have invested in Nc’nean, a green Scotch producer founded by the former director-general of the prison service and his daughter, Annabel Thomas. It is thought to be Scotland’s first organic distillery.
The company uses renewable energy to make whisky from organically grown barley. It is sold in bottles made from recycled glass and 99 per cent of the waste created by the distilling process is reused by a neighbouring farm.
Mr Paxman, 71, said: “I have enjoyed a dram for more years than I care to remember. When the opportunity came along to get involved with a Scotch that is made while taking care of the environment, I was keen to get involved.
“How often can you say that your pleasure causes no harm to anyone else?”
Mr Lewis was dismissed by Mr Howard as director-general of the prison service in 1995 after two high-profile break-outs.
Mr Paxman later interrogated Mr Howard on the BBC programme Newsnight about whether he had threatened to overrule Mr Lewis’s decision not to suspend the governor at one of the jails in question, asking the same question over and over again as Mr Howard evaded answering.
In retirement, Mr Lewis, 75, bought the Drimnin estate on the Morvern peninsula on the west coast of Scotland.
Nc’nean – an abbreviation of Neachneohain, the name of the Gaelic goddess of spirits – was established there in 2017 when Ms Thomas, the company’s chief executive officer, gave up her job as a management consultant in London to follow her dream of making whisky.
To build the business, they raised £7.5million from an EU grant and other investors, including Mr Paxman, who owns a 0.6 per cent stake. Mr Lewis remains on the board of directors.
Mr Paxman, a keen angler, has been outspoken about his love of the Highlands and last year accused the salmon farming industry in Scotland of putting wild stocks of the fish at risk of extinction.
He has previously referred to his fondness of whisky, describing himself as “a fan and loyal supporter of the Highlands and Islands,” adding: “I do my best to support one of their main industries. It’s a sort of social service.”
Mr Paxman declined to discuss how he came to invest in Nc’nean.