RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has been forced to deny that he had switched parties after a Tory colleague claimed that all of Britain's new cities were represented by Labour.

The embarrassed shadow cabinet minister represents almost a third of the newly elevated Preston.

The decision to make Preston, Stirling in Scotland and Newport in Wales the Queen's golden jubilee cities and Brighton, Wolverhampton and Inverness the millennium cities two years ago brought immediate Tory claims of a "political fix."

Simon Burns, the Conservative MP for Chelmsford one of the losers, said the government was deliberately choosing towns with Labour MPs for the honour.

And the front bench local government spokesman said there were suspicions of "political favouritism" that could only be resolved by an independent commission in future.

Shadow Welsh Secretary Mr Evans whose constituency includes more than 20,000 voters in Fulwood in the borough of Preston, said: "I have not crossed the floor the join Labour. I would rather go and live in Siberia .

"Simon Burns has got it completely wrong. I shall be inviting him to come to Preston and see the truth for himself."

HYNDBURN MP Greg Pope has admitted to a betrayal of his own - putting a link to Burnley FC on his website. When setting it up, the Labour backbencher decided as a joke to put in a link to the Blackburn Rovers and Accrington Stanley websites so visitors could make a quick trip to find out more about the two soccer clubs he had supported since childhood.

But he has revealed this caused him problems.

Mr Pope said:"I had a string of complaints that Burnley was not included. "I had put in the link because I have always been a fan and now I have been persauded to put a link in to the Clarets website.

"To be fair, my office manager Pam, a Burnley fan, said I should do so when I set the website up.

"The question now is whether I will have my Rovers season ticket revoked and whether my two boys will ever speak to me again!''