MPs Andrew Percy and Martin Vickers rebel against Government in Commons press regulation vote
North Lincolnshire's Conservative MPs Andrew Percy and Martin Vickers both rebelled against the Government in a House of Commons vote on regulation of the press.
A deal was struck between the leaders of the three main parties late on Sunday night to create a new media watchdog by Royal Charter, instead of by legislation.
The deal came in the wake of the phone hacking scandal and subsequent Leveson inquiry.
But 13 Conservative MPs including Mr Percy and Mr Vickers forced a Commons vote over plans to add a clause to the existing Crime and Courts Bill, which would establish a system of exemplary damages for newspapers which choose to remain outside the new regulatory system.
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The new media watchdog will have the power to impose fines of up to £1 million if guidelines are breached by newspapers.
Mr Percy, the Brigg and Goole MP, said: "My concern was two-fold.
"First of all, this was a deal done with the party leaders in the wee hours of the morning.
"The changes were slipped into the final stages of a piece of legislation going through the House of Commons, the report stage.
"This means there is no possibility of it being debated at any length.
"This is a major change to 300 years of press freedom so I wasn't in a position, on the basis of minimal scrutiny, to be able to make a decision on it.
"Some of the proposals actually go much further than I think most people would consider reasonable and consequently, I didn't feel I could support them at this time.
"There might only have been a small band of us but there were 13 of us prepared to say you don't just throw away 300 years or press freedom in a couple of hours in the House of Commons on the back of a deal sorted out in the early hours of the morning."
Mr Vickers, whose Cleethorpes constituency includes the Barton-Upon-Humber area, said: "My view on the whole issue was that any form of legal underpinning was an attack on the freedom of the press.
"With the arguments put forward about the Dowler case and the McCanns and so on, while the press acted despicably in those cases, they were carrying out what were illegal acts.
"The only opportunity we had to express our opinions was with this particular vote, centered around exemplary damages.
"The way it is worded could catch all sorts of small newssheets and certainly could be very damaging to regional and local papers."
The rebels lost the vote by a total of 529 votes to 13.
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