MP Tonge is sacked

Dr Jenny Tonge has been asked to step down as Liberal Democrat spokeswoman for children, leader Charles Kennedy said today.

The London MP, the party's former international development spokeswoman, had refused to back down after claiming she would consider becoming a suicide bomber if she was forced to live like Palestinians.

Dr Tonge, who is standing down anyway as MP for Richmond Park at the next election, told a pro-Palestinian lobby group that life under Israel could be intolerable.

"That sort of thing repeated on a daily basis made me understand how people can become suicide bombers," she said.

"I think if I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself."

Earlier today Dr Tonge refused to back down, telling Sky News: "From minor things to major things, their life does not feel like it is worth living. What I said was that I do not condone suicide bombers. But I understand why people out there become suicide bombers."

Labour peer Lord Janner, chairman of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: "For a member of either House of Parliament to say she has sympathy with this is awful."

James Purnell, who is leading a delegation of Labour MPs to Israel, said: "We have met victims of suicide terrorism from both sides. They would be appalled by what Jenny Tonge has said."