TWO more of the region’s MPs this evening vowed to defy a Labour Party plea to release their expenses’ receipts within days, telling voters: “You will have to wait.”

And one, veteran Middlesbrough MP Sir Stuart Bell went further, insisting any MP complying with the call to make them available from Monday would be breaching data protection laws.

Sir Stuart, and Ashok Kumar (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland), joined Frank Cook (Stockton North) and Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) in resisting the pressure to speed up publication.

* Read the full story in tomorrow's Northern Echo.