TORY leader William Hague became caught up in the foot-and-mouth crisis as the disease tightened its grip on North Yorkshire.

One of the three new cases confirmed in the last two days was at Home Farm, in Catterick - only half a mile from the home Mr Hague shares with his wife, Ffion, in Brough Park.

The Richmond MP will be allowed to leave Brough Park, which is also home to 20 other families, but only in vehicles that have been disinfected as they are driven out from the estate.

The disease has also reached the Bedale area, with an outbreak confirmed at Butterwell Farm, Patrick Brompton. Investigations continue into how it reached the area.

The third case, at Crossfields, Aysgarth, near Leyburn, was confirmed yesterday.

Mr Hague spoke of his sympathy for Home Farm's owner John Watson and stressed that he believed the disease was far from under control.

Mr Hague said: "This news is heartbreaking. Really good and conscientious farmers who look after the health of their animals, and have done everything possible to avoid foot-and-mouth getting on to their farms, have seen their animals succumb.

"This disease is rife across my constituency in North Yorkshire and I hope no one is going to tell me it is fully under control."

The number of confirmed cases may be creeping up, but the number of farms losing their animals is rocketing due to the policy of killing all neighbouring flocks and herds.

A meeting of Richmondshire District Council's foot-and-mouth special working group last Wednesday heard that a total of 123 farms in the district had had their livestock destroyed. The number has since grown substantially, as at that point the disease itself had been confirmed on only 11 farms.

Meanwhile, possible health risks posed by the Government's carcass-burning policy were highlighted at the weekend. A study for the Government by the National Environmental Technology Centre suggested that smoke from the nation's pyres was emitting higher levels of cancer-causing dioxins than all the country's most dangerous factories combined.

North Yorkshire's pyre, at Tunstall, near Catterick, was lit last Tuesday and in one week 2,101 sheep, 738 cattle and 467 pigs - from the disease-hit Manor House Farm and 26 neighbouring farms - had been destroyed on it.

l Counting the cost: Page