BURY South MP Ivan Lewis has strongly denied he had any influence over the controversial decision to free convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi.

And he has accused local Lib Dems of using “misleading and distorted media reports” to attack him, declaring that the party’s “shameless opportunism” has no limits.

The row broke out after the Lib Dems called on the MP to explain his role in freeing the Libyan bomber who was released on compassionate grounds after serving less than eight years of his life sentence. Lib Dems say, according to reports, the Bury South MP wrote a letter to Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill just two weeks before the decision to free the bomber — saying he hoped MacAskill “would consider the Libyan application” to release Al Megrahi.

Councillor Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Bury South, said “Although Al Megrahi has only a few months to live, I was very disturbed to hear that our own MP may have interfered with the decision made by the Scottish Justice Secretary which granted him his freedom. I urge Ivan Lewis to explain his actions at once. We have a right to know what role our MP has played in this controversial decision and, indeed, why he was involved at all.

“This is a Scottish matter and I would be very worried if any minister, let alone our own MP, was interfering in this way.”

Mr Lewis said: “The truth is that the Foreign Office received a letter from the Scottish Justice Minister seeking advice about our understanding of any legal issues which were relevant to their consideration of the Al Megrahi case.

“As the Minister for the Middle East I replied with our view of the legal position. I made it clear that the decision about Al Megrahi’s fate was a matter entirely for the Scottish Executive which makes the media reports that claim I urged the Scottish Executive to release Al Megrahi misleading, inaccurate and untrue. Like millions of others I was disturbed by the scenes which accompanied Al Megrahi’s return to Libya.”