BURNLEY MP Kitty Ussher has spoken of her sadness after she has placed her Rosehill home up for sale.

The MP has already announced she will not be defending her Burnley and Padiham seat at the next General Elect-ion, and discussions over her success-or are continuing.

But after Parliamentary rule changes on mortgage relief, Mrs Ussher decided that her Burnley home had to be placed on the market, for a price of £150,000.

She revealed to the Lancashire Telegraph earlier this year that she had decided to designate her Brixton home in London as her main residence.

Mrs Ussher told the Lancashire Telegraph: “I feel extremely sad that I am putting the house on the market because it has been my family home and we did it up with that in mind.

“But in the last few weeks we have discovered that the taxpayer will stop helping with the cost of the mortgage, for at least six weeks before Parliament dissolves, which could be May now.

“We had hoped to put the house up for sale after the General Election, because I thought it would be better form, but we would have been left paying two mortgages and this property was the one which had to go.”

The MP came under fire after changing her first home designation to London and later faced questions over her parliamentary allowances.

Gordon Birtwistle, Burnley council leader and the Liberal Democrat candidate for Mrs Ussher’s seat, acknowledged the sale made economic sense.

Meanwhile the selection process for the next Labour candidate, for which former county councillors Tony Martin and Marcus Johnstone have emerged as front runners, is expected to be resolved in early December.