THE Government has been accused of "demeaning" Parliament because of the way it handled the announcement that the U.S. would be allowed to RAF Fylingdales for missile defence. The Tories are furious the decision to upgrade the North Yorkshire radar base for "son of Star Wars" leaked out at 5.30pm on Tuesday. Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon did not attend the Commons to make a statement until 1.30pm the following day. Shadow Leader of the House, Eric Forth, said Mr Hoon was guilty of "premature expostulation". Turning his fire on his counterpart, Robin Cook, he said: "What is the Leader of the House going to do to get Ministers to stop demeaning the House and giving their information to anyone else before that happens here in the House of Commons?

"Time and again, Ministers have been giving crucial information to the media 24 hours ahead and then coming to the Chamber and boasting that they are bringing the matter to the House.

"This is just the latest example and Mr Cook must tell us what he is going to do to deal with the practice effectively and not allow it to continue."

Mr Cook, who is responsible for the running of the Commons, also faced fire for not finding dedicated time to debate the decision to upgrade Fylingdales for missile defence. Instead, it will be discussed next week as part of a broader Defence debate.

Labour left-winger Malcolm Savidge said half the Parliamentary Labour party - 270 MPs - were concerned about allowing the North Yorkshire radar base to be used.

Mr Cook said he understood the "strength of feeling" on the issue, but the Government had a duty to debate defence on five days per Parliamentary session and that was being met.

Updated: 11:29 Friday, January 17, 2003