TORY MP Nigel Evans is demanding an apology from Labour leader Tony Blair over a request to divulge the cash he earns from the family newsagents in Swansea.

The North West Labour Party has written to the Ribble Valley MP asking him to publish his earnings from the firm.

The move comes in the wake of the vote by parliament to force MPs to disclose all outside earnings connected with their membership of the Commons.

Mr Evans - who still works at the shop during the holidays - said even under the new regime he would not have to divulge such information.

He said: "I operated the business I have in Swansea for 10 years before I became an MP.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with my being an MP. The Labour Party has shown itself to have a hidden agenda which is to pressurise Tory MPs to divulge every last detail of their private lives which has nothing to do with their parliamentary business.

"I shall be sending a copy of this letter to Tony Blair asking for a full and immediate apology.

"Instead of using jackboot tactics to extract information which even Lord Nolan did not want to know, the Labour Party should turn its attention instead on the sponsorship of its MPs and their constituency associations by the trade unions and the fact that they asked parliamentary questions which directly affect the unions."

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