Police are investigating an MP who told the House of Commons that he had allowed a two-year-old leukaemia sufferer to die.

Hampshire police said that they were investigating Dr Peter Brand, a GP on the Isle of Wight and Liberal Democrat MP, after a complaint from a member of the public.

Mr Brand reportedly told the House of Commons on 28 January that he had allowed the child to die in 1973 after parents asked him to withdraw treatment. His comments were made during a debate on euthanasia.

Confirming the investigation, a spokesman for Hampshire police said: "Hampshire police received a complaint from a member of the public following comments made by Isle of Wight MP Dr Peter Brand in the House of Commons on Friday January 28.

"The comments were made during the debate on the proposed Medical Treatment (Prevention of Euthanasia) Bill and Hampshire police are to investigate the complaint."

Euthanasia debate

In the debate of the Bill, brought by Congleton MP Ann Winterton, Dr Brand asked whether omission of treatment could be considered to be the same as a deliberate and intentional act of murder.

He told the Commons that under the terms of the Bill he would be considered a "multiple murderer" after a "profound experience" as a hospital house officer during the early years of his medical career.

Dr Brand said during the debate: "I looked after a very brave two-year-old kid who had leukaemia.

"The child suffered many recurrences which involved a lot of unpleasant treatment.

"I could not tell, the consultant could not tell, nobody could tell, whether further treatment would have been successful.

"During yet another flare-up, the parents said that neither they nor the child could cope with it anymore. They asked for all the tubes to be taken away and to be allowed to sit with him.

"They did and he died 48 hours later.

"This was ... active withdrawal of treatment for a condition that might have responded to treatment. Clearly, I did not withdraw the treatment with the purpose of killing that child, but to prevent further distress.

'Extraordinary'

"I allowed a death to occur and that removed distress.

"The purpose of my action was therefore to promote death or at least to enable death to occur."

Speaking on Wednesday, after the police investigation was announced, Mr Brand defended his position.

He said: "I am very happy to talk to the police at any time and it's obviously right that they should investigate any complaint they should get."

He said police had begun their investigation on the grounds of what the complainant had told them, and they had not looked at a copy of Hansard which gives a verbatim account of the debate.

"I was very careful about what I said, that if the Bill became law then under that definition a lot of doctors, including myself, would be classed as mass medical murderers," said Dr Brand.

"It's quite extraordinary that the police didn't actually look at the speech I made rather than what the complainant said I said."