Do As I Say, Not As I Do? Local MPs Urged to Sign Up to Campaign Against Secrecy Bill

11.21.43pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 18th Jun 2007

Milton Keynes Liberal Democrat campaigners are urging local MPs Mark Lancaster and Phyllis Starkey to sign the parliamentary motion opposing moves to exempt MPs from the Freedom of Information laws.

Milton Keynes North Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson Jill Hope has written to both Mark Lancaster and Phyllis Starkey encouraging them to join the growing campaign against the Bill, to help persuade the House of Lords to reject the Bill when they discuss it later this month.

In her letter, Jill Hope writes: "This has to be one of the most outrageous proposals ever put before Parliament. MPs and Lords are the very people who introduced this important legislation, to give people a right to know what public bodies and public servants, paid from the public purse, are doing and saying, and how they are spending public money. This is nothing to do with the confidentiality of letters from constituents disclosing personal and private information, which are already covered by data protection rules. This is about one rule for ordinary people, and a different rule for MPs. The idea that MPs might pass a new law to exempt themselves from the Freedom of Information laws will strike most people as utter hypocrisy.

"It is vital that this rotten bill is thrown out. I have been waiting in vain for a public comment on this important issue from either of Milton Keynes' MPs, so now I have written to them both. A large number of MPs are backing the motion tabled by Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes that will help persuade the Lords to kill off this self-serving and hypocritical bill. Will the MPs for Milton Keynes give it their support, or will they be sending a message to the public that says do as I say, not as I do?"