Coventry City: MPs statements 'are grossly defamatory'

On Tuesday, Jim Cunningham MP tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament calling for an urgent meeting to be convened between the club, ACL, Coventry City Council and the Football League.

We appreciate the genuine concern about the current situation felt by Mr Cunningham and his fellow Coventry MP, Geoffrey Robinson, who sponsored the motion, and indeed that felt by many of their constituents.

The Rt. Hon. Bob Ainsworth MP subsequently submitted an amendment to this motion saying inter alia that the club's owner has no viable plan or intention to return to the Coventry area and had put itself into administration as part of a deliberate strategy developed over time to defraud its creditors.

These statements have no foundation whatsoever in fact and are grossly defamatory.

If Mr Ainsworth genuinely believes his statements to be true, we respectfully invite him to repeat them outside Parliament and not to hide behind parliamentary privilege.

If he is not prepared to do this, we can only conclude that he does not in fact believe them to be true, in which case he should immediately withdraw them.