PENDLE MP Andrew Stephenson had a lucky escape after finding both of his back tyres were flat as he drove through Colne.

Mr Stephenson was making his way to St Mary-le-Ghyll Church, in Barnoldswick, on Sunday morning, when he discovered the problems.

He had not spotted that both tyres were flat because of the snow around the car, but problems arose when he began accelerating.

He said: “There was quite a lot of traffic about at first but as soon as I accelerated above 20mph on North Valley Road the back end of the car slid out.

“I managed to pull in safety and get a taxi to church, and I was only five minutes later, but I guess it was quite fortunate.”

Mr Stephenson was yesterday waiting to hear from the garage whether the tyres had both gone flat at the same time, or been deliberately deflated, or slashec.

He said if foul play was involved he would be reporting the incident to the police. His travel difficulties continued later in the day when it took him 10 hours to get from Colne to London. After catching a rail replacement bus from Colne to Preston, the train to London was initially delayed, before hitting problems with the lines in Rugby.

He finally arrived at his London flat at around 1am.