Stockton North Liberal Democrat candidate elected to national body

Philip Latham, Liberal Democrat candidate for Stockton North, was recently elected to the national council of Unlock Democracy, the successor to Charter 88 which also campaigned for electoral reform. Speaking of his success, Philip admitted to being extremely pleased to have been elected to such an important organisation.

' This is a great honour to have been chosen by the North East members to represent their interests. However the fact that an organisation like Unlock Democracy has to campaign for electoral reform is a dreadful indictment of all Tory MP's and many Labour. This is work that parliament should be doing.

In a recent vote in the House of Commons all the Tories voted against electoral reform because they want to keep their safe seats like Hexham for ever, while Labour MP's agreed to a very small step towards reform after being put under pressure by Gordon Brown. Only the Liberal Democrats gave the measure total support.

The reality, I fear, is that many MPs still vote for what they see as their own vested interests and that the corruption revealed by the expenses scandal has not been removed.'