They want to see which lobbyists and private health firms he met with in the run-up to his hated Health and Social Care Act 2012, which opened the NHS up to further privatisation.

A landmark ruling at a Freedom of Information tribunal in April found the public have every right to see his and other Ministerial diaries.

But the Government has now taken the case to the Court of Appeal.

Mr Frankel said it was ironic that Ministers claim FoI laws are too expensive to administer and must be scaled back – while at the same time blowing vast sums of taxpayers’ cash on court cases to keep information private.

“(They) talk about the ‘burden of FoI’ – some of the burden is caused by authorities trying to resist disclosure beyond the point at which they should simply accept the decision,” Mr Frankel said