BUSINESSMAN Gordon Birtwistle got hot under his sixteen and a half inch collar when he went to the local Marks and Spencer store and couldn't find a British-made shirt.

And he says he became really shirty when he found that many of the items on offer at the Burnley store came from trouble-torn Indonesia.

Now the Burnley council Liberal Democrat leader aims to deliver a dressing-down to the top high-street retailer by writing to protest over the absence of home-brand shirts.

"It is ridiculous," he said.

"Indonesia is a totalitarian state that has massacred hundreds of its own people and whose military and their supporters are even now firing on our troops who are trying to keep the peace in East Timor, where thousands have been killed or displaced directly as a result of the activities of this evil regime." Coun Birtwistle, head of Oswaldtwistle engineering company Stuart Engineering, went on: "I did have a choice of other shirts - but even those came from Malaysia and Macao, not a British or even EU shirt in sight.

"It wasn't many years ago that Marks and Spencer made a big point of saying in their advertisements that more than 90 per cent of heir goods were made in the UK and they were backing British industry.

"Now they seem to be supporting corrupt regimes."

A spokeswoman for Marks and Spencer in London said that less than two per cent of the group's turnover came from Indonesia.

She said: "We are now a global retailer and it is our policy to source from all over the world to provide value and quality for our customers.

"Unlike many retailers, all our goods are clearly marked to enable customers to make an informed decision and choice."

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