Slaughter's fury over referendum campaign

Local MP Andrew Slaughter has reacted angrily to the Hammersmith referendum campaign, flying off the handle at I Want a Referendum chairman Derek Scott during a BBC radio interview.

Clearly irritated that his promise-breaking plans are being highlighted to local voters so effectively, Slaughter cheekily accused Mr Scott of fronting a "dishonest" marketing exercise and of playing party politics.

Yet Mr Slaughter somehow managed to overlook his own blatant dishonesty, in claiming the Lisbon Treaty is 'significantly different' to the EU Constitution, on which he promised to support a referendum.

In response, Mr Scott - a Labour supporting former adviser to Tony Blair - pointed out that the I Want a Referendum campaign has support from across the political spectrum, and has Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs on its advisory board as well as Conservatives.

Hitting back at Mr Slaughter, Scott said: "You may get away with this twisting in the House of Commons but I think people out there actually realise what you are trying to do."

According to well-informed political blogger, Guido Fawkes, the debate became rather more heated than the BBC even dared to report. He claims that the presenter of the BBC programme, Mark Darcy, told Scott he had never seen anything like it in his career.

Hear the (sanitised!) exchanges between Derek Scott and Andrew Slaughter on Today in Parliament on BBC Radio 4 at 2330 GMT on Friday, 8 February or download the podcast from the Radio 4 website.