FORMER Nelson and Colne MP Doug Hoyle has stepped up the pressure on Jack Straw to order the cancellation of the England Cricket tour of Zimbabwe.

He spoke out in the House of Lords after his son Lindsay, MP for Chorley, and Burnley Labour backbencher Peter Pike urged the Blackburn MP to do more to stop the trip.

After they tackled Mr Straw on the issue in the House of Commons, Lord Hoyle told fellow peers: "The England and Wales Cricket Board is damned if it does and damned if it does not over this tour.

"The players do not want to tour; the ECB does not want to tour but if it does not it faces massive fines and the possibility of being removed from international cricket by the International Cricket Council.

"Why are the government so reluctant to talk to the ICC? Is it not time that this tour was called off?

"We do not want to give succour to such a repugnant dictator as Robert Mugabe."

Mr Straw told the MPs in the Commons that despite their reservations the country could not have "state-run cricket".