Squeals of rage over MP's pig jibe on Twitter

LONDON - Britain's Conservative Party chairman, Eric Pickles, came close to calling a senior Labour MP a liar as a bizarre spat between the parties over an abusive message on Twitter degenerated into acrimony.

The row - branded "Twittergate" at Westminster - blew up after David Wright, the MP for Telford, described Tories as "scum-sucking pigs" on the micro-blogging website.

Wright admitted typing the words: "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig." But he later insisted that the phrase "scum-sucking" had been added by a "third party".

His comments sparked a heated debate among the political "twitterati" over whether it was possible to tamper with a tweet.

The blunt-speaking Pickles told Wright in a stinging letter: "Rather than owning up to your actions you seem to be trying to claim that your Twitter feed was hacked into. This explanation is simply not credible."

The Tories produced an example of Wright calling Conservative leader David Cameron a "horrible opportunistic scumbag" on Twitter.

The pig jibe caused an instant barrage of protest on the right-wing blogosphere, prompting Wright to tweet: "Oh dear, upsetting Tories again. Must've hit a nerve."

Later he wrote: "Think you will find the pig is the Tory party not Tory voters. But fair dos, apology in the ether." In a subsequent message he said: "Apologised. Not forced. Genuine."

- INDEPENDENT