TWO North-East MPs have been branded "bonkers" by their own Labour bosses for backing a campaign for pacifists to stop paying taxes to the military.

Stockton North MP Frank Cook and Middlesbrough South MP Ashok Kumar are listed as supporters of Conscience, which wants to give objectors the right to divert their taxes to "peace building initiatives" instead.

Last night, a senior Labour campaign spokesman said: "Not even Mrs Thatcher advocated policies as bonkers as this one!"

Adding that the campaign would "let down our army, navy and air force", the spokesman said: "The first duty of Government is to defend our country."

Mr Cook and Mr Kumar are among 75 mainly Labour MPs listed as supporters on the website of Conscience: The Peace Tax Campaign.

It does not want pacifists to pay less tax - merely that they could stipulate that money they would normally contribute to the Ministry of Defence should pay for other services.

Conscience claims this would add up to more than £500 a year per taxpayer.

Labour campaign spokesman Fraser Kemp, MP for Houghton and Washington East, criticised the campaign when it emerged that shadow Chancelllor Oliver Letwin was also a supporter.

He said the logic was that vegetarians should be able to opt out of paying subsidies to livestock farmers, or other taxpayers opting out of paying for medical research.

The censure is particularly embarrassing for Mr Kumar, who is the unpaid parliamentary aide to International Development Secretary Hilary Benn. He said he had given his support to Conscience "a long time ago", but added: "I'm not against it. I think it's an idea that should be explored."

Mr Cook said: "I thought people should have some choice between their taxes going to the NHS or education rather than conflict."