GORDON Prentice has joined the battle over a decision to switch Ministry of Defence work done by a Burnley textile company to China.

The Pendle Labour MP claimed camouflage uniforms being made by the Chinese were not fit for combat. They had been made in East Lancashire for 25 years.

Chorley's Lindsay Hoyle and Ribble Valley's Nigel Evans also attacked the move by the Ministry of Defence in the Commons debate.

Mr Hoyle and Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw have been lobbying Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon to review the decision to take the contract away from the Pincroft Dyeing and Printing Company in Chorley and its Blackburn subsidiary Cookson and Clegg, which employs 35 people, and give it to Northern Ireland firm Cooneen, Watts and Stone, which was created to win the work.

The decision is currently being contested in the high court, while the Ministry of Defence is reviewing the finances of the new firm - set up especially to win the contract and out-source the work to China.

In a special debate on defence contracts, Mr Prentice attacked the decision to give a £50million five-year contract to make army uniforms to a company which had sub-contracted the camouflage work to People's Liberation Army factory number 3533 in Chongquin.

He told Armed Forced Minister Adam Ingram that he had received a letter from a rival supplier which claimed that in 19 weeks the Chinese firm had not yet produced kit of sufficient quality.

He said the chairman of Carrington, a company in the North West, claimed the Chinese firm "has not been able to provide fabrics that meet the specifications for tensile strength, tear strength, shrinkage and infra-red reflectance.

"How long does Cooneen have to meet the specifications in the contract before it is awarded elsewhere?"

Infra-red reflectance is vital to help troops avoid detection at night because of their body heat.

Mr Ingram said out-sourcing China was acceptable but promised that the contract would be subject to evaluation as it proceeded. If the firm failed to deliver the proper quality and number of uniforms on time, it would be taken away.

But he said that currently they were only allegations and these and questions about Cooneen's finances were being looked into.

Tory Mr Evans demanded to know why the contract had been allowed to go to China and said that if the French could make their own uniforms why couldn't British firms.

Mr Ingram said the award of the "cut and sew" contract for uniforms had been given to Cooneen to save cash for the taxpayer.

But Mr Hoyle told him that the decision to allow a liberation army company to make British uniforms was "absolutely absurd and should not be allowed to happen again."