Richmond MPs Back Freedom of MPs' Information

1.29.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 21st May 2007

Both of the Borough's two MPs supported efforts in Parliament to resist a Bill designed to remove Parliament from the provisions of the Freedom of Information Bill. Around 40 MPs - mostly Liberal Democrats, but including some independent minded Labour and Conservative MPs - were involved in a succession of efforts to derail the Bill which had (unofficial) backing from the Government and official opposition.

Vincent Cable MP said: "Although the reason given for the Bill was to protect MPs' correspondence, I have never had any official body leak my letters to an unauthorised party; it would have been illegal if they had; and the Bill wouldn't change anything. The real reason was to prevent the public having access to data on MPs' expenses which cannot be right when other public officials, like Chief Constables, are expected to disclose information under the Freedom of Information legislation."