Veteran Oxfordshire MP Tony Baldry has launched a fierce attack on the Government's plan to modernise Parliament, branding it "tosh".

The Banbury backbencher, who has been at Westminster for 18 years, has written to Leader of the Commons Robin Cook demanding a rethink.

He told him that a balance had to be struck between the need of the elected Government of the day to get its business through Parliament and the requirement for MPs, the opposition and individual backbenchers to scrutinise ministerial actions and raise concerns.

Mr Baldry told Mr Cook: "It seems to me firstly, there is a myth that needs to be dispelled, which is that the working hours of the House of Commons have been dictated by the needs of MPs without side interests.

"This is tosh.

"It may be that in some dim and distant past, before MPs generally had offices at Westminster, that there was a tendency for more MPs to be employed outside the House of Commons and to work at their offices during the morning and come to Westminster at lunchtime. But that was all a very long time ago."