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December 23, 2010

Vince Cable: Telegraph has done great damage to the way MPs operate with fake-voters sting

By Dominic wireposts

The Telegraph’s undercover sting taping a series of Lib Dem ministers at their advice surgeries has done “great damage” to the relationship between MPs and their constituents, business secretary Vince Cable has told the Richmond and Twickenham Times.

In an exclusive interview with his local paper he says: “I feel quite angry and strongly about this, I’ve had constituency surgeries now for 13 years every week, that’s well over 600.

‘Thousands and thousands of constituents have been to see me, often on very difficult and highly confidential issues which have been respected by me and by them.

‘Then somebody who isn’t a constituent falsifies their name and address and comes in with a hidden microphone – it completely undermines the whole basis on which you operate as a local MP.

‘All my colleagues, of all parties, feel very strongly that some great damage has been done by this.”

Cable says he won’t sue, but does emphasise that he prefaced his comments by saying that they were confidential.

I’ve blogged about the legal ramifications of the Telegraph sting here, where I also discuss the latest conspiracy theory as to why the Telegraph omitted Cable’s bombshell claim about declaring war on Rupert Murdoch from its original story.

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