Welsh Liberal Democrat Lembit Opik has dismissed rumours he missed party discussions on the next Assembly Government because he was in London filming the BBC show Have I Got News For You.The Montgomeryshire MP and Welsh Lib Dem leader said he was involved in a debate on the Freedom of Information amendment bill in Parliament and representing the parents of a soldier who died at the controversial Deepcut barracks.
Mr Opik, who described the rumours as “contemptible”, said: “I was raising the case of Des and Doreen James and their deceased daughter Cheryl.
“The Freedom of Information Act has failed them and I was speaking up for them. Cheryl died at the Deepcut army base in 1995 and we still haven’t found out why.”
He said: “I could have gone to Mid Wales and back but I’m not leading the process anyway - Mike German is leading it as head of the Liberal Democrats in the Assembly.
“The important meetings are still to come. On Tuesday the Liberal Democrat executive will decide whether to accept or reject the package that has been put together.”
Mr Opik said: “I would expect anyone who knows I was in London to report fairly the fact that I was speaking up for Des and Doreen James.”
The Lib Dems had insisted Mr Opik was absent from the key meeting in Llandrindod Wells because he had important Parliamentary business.
6 Comments
I am sure that all involved with the Deepcut affair will applaud Lembit’s tenacity and passion to have the deaths at Deepcut persued in a public inquiry.
As an MP why would he be expected to try to influence a meeting of the Welsh Assembly?
These rumourmongers should shut up.
You tell em Lembit - watch out for that asteroid….!!
If it were not for Lembit, Deepcut would be buried in the annals of Whitehall never to see the light of day again; and, could someone please explain to me what is the point of having the freedom of information act if they can refuse your request on a whim?
Oops, I made a mistake in the above sentence…what I meant to say was, ‘REFUSE YOU, TO SAVE THEIR OWN NECKS’!
Not quite the actions you would expect from a Democratic Government…is it!
Story seems to change (and grow) with the telling! But then this is coming from someone who defends his actions with jibes about how MPs should appear in the media and have a sense of humour
Not if it prevents you doing the job you were elected (and we pay you) to do
Lembit’s support for our family is greatly appreciated. Much of the criticism he has been subjected to recently has been totally unjustified. Without Lembit Opik and other like-minded MPs the deaths at Deepcut would long ago have been brushed tidily under any convenient carpet; and this New Labour Government would have finally created a society where spin can overcome justice.