A CUMBRIAN MP has denied a claim in the commons that she is a 'squirrel racist'.

Suggestions of "squirrel racism" were raised as MPs debated the potential extinction of the red species.

Conservative Trudy Harrison (Copeland) quoted the Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter as she warned the decline of the red squirrel is a "national tragedy" before praising volunteer conservation groups for their efforts in Cumbria.

She was asked by independent John Woodcock to outline what she would say to those "detractors" who might suggest she is "nothing more than a squirrel racist".

As Ms Harrison led a parliamentary debate on the red squirrel, Mr Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) intervened to say: "We in Barrow and Furness are with her in wishing to preserve the red squirrel.

"But what does she say to those detractors who would say that in fact she is nothing more than a squirrel racist?

"1870 - the time at which grey squirrels were released into Britain - was also when Barrow shipyard was built and most Barrovians arrived in the area.

"I do not imagine that she would suggest herding up Barrovians and removing them from their native Cumbria.

"Can she say more about how grey squirrels are going to be protected alongside what is rightly a drive to preserve the red squirrel?"

Ms Harrison replied: "He is quite right that I of course would not want to see Barrovians rounded up and banished from Barrow.

"The point is that the native red squirrel and the North American grey squirrel cannot cohabit and that is because grey squirrels carry the squirrel pox virus but have themselves developed immunity to it."

Mr Woodcock also wrote on Twitter: "In the Save the Red Squirrel debate in Westminster Hall just now, Trudy Harrison rightly bats away the suggestion that she is a 'squirrel racist'."

Environment Minister Therese Coffey, addressing Mr Woodcock in Westminster Hall, said she had "never heard such nonsense" and suggested the MP should go on an "education tour" in Cumbria to understand the importance of red squirrels.