GLOBE-trotting East Lancashire MP Janet Anderson missed out on the first day of a major international film festival -- because she lost her passport.

The Culture Minister, who travels around 50,000 miles a year, had been due to fly out to America yesterday, to attend the Sundance Film Festival founded by screen idol Robert Redford near Salt Lake City, Utah.

But when she went to her kitchen drawer where the vital travel document is always kept she discovered it wasn't there.

Despite a frantic search the passport did not turn up, and Rossendale and Darwen MP was forced to queue up at the Petty France passport office in Westminster for an other one.

She was due to take a breakfast-time flight this morning, provided the new passport doesn't go missing as well!

Mrs Anderson is a frequent flyer with her responsibilities for film, broadcasting and pop music.

In the past year, she has travelled about 50,000 miles for film events in Hollywood, Japan, Cannes, Denmark, Paris, Sweden and Finland. She has also been to the less exotic Bradford, Birmingham and Cornwall.

She heads abroad to promote UK artists and services and Britain as a venue for film-making, the job she is doing in Utah.

But the missing passport did enable the MP to take part in the debate on fox hunting, which she thought she was going to miss.

Mrs Anderson said: "I was due to miss the vote as I was flying out to Utah for the film festival.

"The last time I used it was when I went to Lille in November.

" I couldn't believe it. I know I can be a bit scatty, but I'm very careful about my passport.

"I always keep it in my kitchen drawer. Because of that I didn't even bother to check till 11pm the night before. It just wasn't there and I couldn't find it anywhere.

"I had to go to Petty France for a new one and then book on a flight at 7.30am the following morning.

"It must have been meant because I was going to miss the hunting debate.

"The good news is that I unexpectedly got the chance to vote to ban hunting with hounds after all!"