A VETERAN North-East MP revealed last night that he had considered "throwing himself in the river" after a year of mounting personal and professional pressure.

Stuart Bell, Labour MP for Middlesbrough, has endured a year he would rather forget.

His son Malcolm, 20, was locked up for stealing from MPs while working in the Commons for his father as a researcher.

Then the 64-year-old MP's daughter, Yvonne, was held at Dubai airport.

She flashed a V-sign at police as tempers frayed during a 12-hour flight delay and subsequently spent five days incarcerated.

Meanwhile, Mr Bell suffered a humiliation when Middlesbrough voters, a traditional Labour stronghold, voted by a landslide for an independent mayor.

Last night, Mr Bell said: "It reached the stage where I just felt like bursting into tears at any moment.

"My wife lost her mobile phone and I felt like throwing myself in the river. That's when I realised I had a problem. That wasn't a normal reaction - it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"Having a child die or watching one go to prison are the worst things that can happen to a parent. It was an extraordinary traumatic time for me."

But after being counselled by both the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury, and seeking solace in writing, Mr Bell has now emerged from his year of hell. "My main concern was for my son," he said. "Dr George Carey advised me to stay close to him and give him the support he needed.

"The Prime Minister was also extremely helpful. I was lucky to have a lot of support - people even stopped me on buses."

Mr Bell says the past year has been more stressful than at any other time of his life.

"I think some people do think MPs are immune to the pressures of life but we are not," he said. "We are all part of the human race, human beings with families we care for and feel for.

"I reached the point where I realised I had to step back if I was to cope with these pressures."

To relieve those pressures Mr Bell threw himself into his writing and has now published Binkie's Revolution - his first novel for 20 years. There are plans for two sequels as well as a book of short stories and four essays on Winston Churchill.

Mr Bell is highly regarded within Westminster for highlighting the plight of parents falsely accused during the notorious Cleveland child abuse crisis