A POLITICAL row has erupted between the Tories and Labour over a comment made about Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate (PCC) for Wycombe.

Wycombe district councillor David Evans (Con) has been accused of slighting Labour's PCC Chauhdry Shafique by asking what he had done for High Wycombe to deserve being selected for the position.

His words, at a Wycombe District Council meeting, prompted a furious response in the Bucks Free Press from fellow Labour district councillor Margaret Draper, with a list of Cllr Shafique's accomplishments.

This was followed by a further letter from one of Mr Evans's constituents in Lane End and Piddington, Alf Leech, who said Mr Evans had done very little since he was elected in 1999, and was always away on business.

Cllr Evans said his remarks at the council meeting were just normal political knockabout.

He had asked what had Cllr Shafique done to deserve being the Labour PPC, because the party had no chance of winning.

"There was nothing said in a malicious sense. We had a chat afterwards and I don't think he was offended, but recognised it as the cut and thrust of politics," he said.

But Cllr Shafique said: "It came out as offensive. But I didn't take offence because politicians have to take these things."

Cllr Evans, 41, responding to Mr Leech's criticism, said his work did take him abroad, but that councils should have working people on them.

"We need a full range of age, experience, sex and ethnic mix and there is this mixture on the council," he said.