VETERAN Burnley-educated MP Robert Sheldon was today critically ill in hospital after collapsing from a suspected heart attack in a London park.

The 76-year-old MP for Ashton-under-Lyne was said by his office to have been taken ill while walking to the House of Commons. A passer-by called an ambulance.

The former Treasury Minister who turned Westminster's main financial watchdog the Commons Public Accounts Committee into an institution feared by Ministers and civil servants alike was educated at Burnley Grammar School. He later studied at Burnley Technical College before joining the family textile firm.

Mr Sheldon collapsed yesterday as Parliament's chief ethical guardian, the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee which he chairs, published a critical report on Tory MP Teresa Gorman, calling for her to be suspended from Parliament for a month for failing to register lucrative business interests.

A spokesman for Mr Sheldon's constituency office said: "We believe he has suffered a heart attack. It is very serious and he is in the intensive care unit of St Thomas' Hospital."

The Manchester-born Labour MP's wife was at his bedside and the rest of his family were travelling to be with him.

Mr Sheldon is one of Westminster's longest-serving and most respected MPs, having first been first elected in 1964.

He served as civil service and then Treasury Minister between 1974 and 1979 and was also chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee. His majority in the constituency, near Manchester, was 22,695 at the last election.

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