Ealing North MP Stephen Pound admitted that Labour MPs received a message instructing them all to stand up and shout "More! More!" at the end of Home Secretary Jack Straw's law and order address to the party's conference.

MPs were ordered to shout for "more" from Jack Straw

But Mr Pound told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme that, as they obediently stood to carry out the order, the MPs got another message telling them it was all a hoax organised by somebody in the press.

"I can't imagine anybody would be so evil," said Mr Pound, whose maiden speech in the Commons following his election last year had his colleagues rocking with mirth.

Straying even further off message, Mr Pound went on to impersonate the prime minister on air.

Stephen Pound: Went off-message over the message

In echoes of Tony Blair's conference speech, he joked that the country did not need "beef on the bone" but "backbone".