LORELY BACKS PETITION ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

10.28.46pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 22nd May 2007

Solihull MP Lorely Burt, and her Liberal Democrats colleagues, today launched a national petition against proposals to exempt MPs from Freedom of Information rules. The petition calls on all political parties to back the campaign.

Speaking from Westminster, Lorely said:

"There should not be one law for MPs and one for everyone else. Exempting politicians from Freedom of Information requests only adds to the public perception of Parliament being opaque and clouded in secrecy.

"If Labour under Gordon Brown are serious about reforming our democracy, then this is their first real test.

"We now hear that David Cameron has now promised that the Conservative Party in the Lords will now try to stop this Bill. However, it was his MPs that helped to push this Bill through last week.

"It is typical of David Cameron to wait and see what the newspaper editorials say before he makes up his mind on an important issue.

"Perhaps he should be doing fewer staged photocalls and paying more attention to what his party is actually doing."