THE Labour party has been accused of running a phantom candidate in Romsey in order to help the Liberal Democrats hold the seat at the next election.

Tory hopeful Paul Raynes claimed Lib Dem MP Sandra Gidley won last May's by-election because Labour support crashed from 9,623 votes in 1997 to 1,451 votes.

He also alleged Labour and the Liberal Democrats had now made a pact to help Mrs Gidley make the most of the anti-Conservative vote.

"We even know which backroom the deal is done in, since the pact only has one office," Mr Raynes wrote in a letter to Mrs Gidley.

He asked whether Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate, Stephen Roberts, had even set up an HQ in the constituency as he could find neither a telephone number nor an office address for him.

But Mrs Gidley said the allegation was offensive and twisted the facts.

She said: "There is no such pact. I have never met or spoken to the Labour prospective parliamentary candidate.

"As a matter of record, the Liberal Democrats, in the last session of parliament, voted with the Conservatives - hence against Labour - in 60 per cent of divisions. I can assure you that this does not mean that we have a pact with the Conservatives."

Mr Roberts, who owns a renovations company, also denied there was a pact, and said he was low-profile because of resources.

"I would say to this that we have an active Labour Party in Romsey, but we do find on the doorstep that Sandra Gidley is a very popular MP," he said.

"Unfortunately we don't have an office in Romsey because we don't have a lot of money. I fought the seat in 1987 and we didn't have an office then and we still don't have one.

"But in terms of pacts or swapping information, we haven't got any. I've never met Sandra Gidley."