The Chief Minister insists the Manx government is not trying to suppress information over its stance on Syrian refugees.

He was speaking out after a Guernsey-based political commentator claimed a victory for transparency in his Freedom of Information battle with the UK Home Office.

Anthony Webber is pressing the UK government to disclose its communications with the Crown Dependencies over the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme.

In October 2017, the Information Commissioner ruled the UK Home Office had properly applied FoI exemption rules when it refused to release the requested information. But Mr Webber successfully appealed to the First Tear Tribunal and now the Upper Tribunal has refused the Home Office permission to appeal.

Mr Webber, a former member of the States of Guernsey, said: ’This is a victory for open and transparent government.

’Hopefully those in senior positions in the Crown Dependencies governments will now refrain from using bogus constitutional arguments to prevent transparency, whether it be in the political or the financial sector. These communications will now have to be revealed.’

But Chief Minister Howard Quayle said: ’This is nothing to do about trying to suppress information.

’It’s about the principle that information between the Crown Dependencies and the UK government should not be automatically shared.’

Mr Quayle said there was nothing in the requested information that would ’cause any embarrassment whatsoever’.

He said the government’s stance on the Syrian refugees was that money was better spent on funding support for those in the refugee camps rather than relocating a small number here.

The Tribunal said there were no implications for other FoIs on communications between the UK and the Crown Dependencies as each case turned on its own facts and the decision was ’not a precedent in any meaningful sense’.