Teenager arrested after MP beaten

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested after an MP was beaten by a group of youths when he tried to stop them playing football in the street.

Tobias Ellwood, Tory MP for Bournemouth East, confronted the gang in Boscombe High Street on Saturday afternoon.

They got angry when he took photographs of them on his mobile phone as evidence so he could alert police. Witnesses saw Mr Ellwood being punched in the head.

Police have told the BBC a teenage boy has been arrested over the attack.

Mr Ellwood went to hospital with minor head injuries and a swollen ear, which has temporarily damaged his hearing.

"I'm reluctant to say too much because I want it to go to trial"

The Conservative MP, a former army officer, had finished meeting constituents at a surgery and was on his way to meet his wife and son when the attack happened.

Mr Ellwood said: "I was involved in a serious attack involving four youths which resulted in me having to go to hospital.

"I'm reluctant to say too much because I want it to go to trial."

The MP was involved in a similar incident last year when he confronted a gang on the Townsend Estate, in his constituency, when they urinated in someone's garden.

The gang verbally abused him and threw stones at him when he threatened to call police.

He has previously said he feels more ordinary people should be prepared to tackle anti-social behaviour.

A Dorset Police spokesperson said they received a call from a man reporting he was being assaulted on Roumelia Lane in the Boscombe area of Bournemouth.

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