Former MP Neil Hamilton told the Oxford Union last night he did not believe public figures deserved private lives.

The former Tory MP for Tatton, who was at the centre of the Cash for Questions row, was among other personalities and students arguing about the rights and wrongs of press intrusion.

Chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, Lord Wakeham, former award-winning BBC rep- orter MP Ben Bradshaw, and the former Northern Ireland minister MP Michael Mates, spoke for the motion 'This House believes that Public Figures Deserve Private Lives'.

Mr Hamilton, who was backed by Talk Radio presenter James Whale and David Walter, the Liberal Democrats' director of media communications and ex-president of the union, said: "The real question we should be debating is that too much in the media in this country lacks a respect for the truth. In a free society we can't restrain the organs of public opinion. I say this with some sense of feeling myself as one of the most public figures this country has seen in a generation."

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