A refusal to allow a charity membership to the Government-funded Anti-Bullying Alliance has been criticised in Parliament.

Yorkshire Evening Post sub-editor Liz founded the charity Bullying Online with her son John in 1999 and it has since won several awards.

But it has been denied membership of the Alliance, which brings together more than 50 national organisations to reduce bullying, because it would not sign a code of conduct preventing it from raising concerns publicly.

The decision led to criticism in Parliament earlier this week, where Liz's MP and Lib Dem spokesman on education Phil Willis accused the Alliance of acting like bullies themselves.

He told MPs: "Surely that is unacceptable. there should not be a gagging order on any organisation, certainly not a well-respected organisation like Bullying Online. That's bullying."

Education minister Stephen Twigg said he would look into the matter and revealed that he had already received "a considerable number of letters" from MPs about the charity's concerns.

Liz said: "The ABA is upset because we criticised the anti-bullying tsar scheme publicly as a waste of money.

"Last year, more than 8,000 parents and children emailed us for help and we will always speak out in their interests, no matter how embarassing that is to the government.

"We have a lot of friends in Parliament and up to 50 MPs from all parties have recently taken issues up with the DfES for us. One has also tabled an Early Day Motion."

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