Press Release

Gordon Brown promises meeting

11 July 2007

Today, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Gordon Brown announced that he would be happy to meet representatives from the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association at No 10 as soon as possible.

The invitation was in response to Lembit Opik’s MP for Montgomeryshire and President of the MND Association request that the Prime Minister follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and support the MND Association campaign to raise £15 million for research to help free the world of MND.

Gordon Brown congratulated Lembit for his campaigning on behalf of the MND Association. Gordon said he had known people die from MND and promised he would do his best to support the campaign.

This is the sixth time that Lembit, whose father died from MND in 2005, has had the opportunity to highlight MND during Prime Minister’s Questions and his first time since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister.

Speaking after the event Lembit said: “I have felt very encouraged by Gordon Brown’s support for this campaign for some time. However, Mr Brown’s formal offer of a meeting as soon as possible in Downing Street is all that I could have hoped and prayed for.

“I believe him to be sincere in his understanding of our campaign and personally, genuinely, committed to helping us achieve a World free of MND.

“This is an exciting time for the Association and in my view a great credit to the Prime Minister during his first days in office.”

Dr Kirstine Knox, Chief Executive for the MND Association, said: “We are incredibly grateful to Lembit for raising the profile of MND in Parliament once again and we look forward to discussing the gap in Government funding with Gordon Brown.”