A BOLTON MP has backed Premier Tony Blair over his handling of the fuel crisis.

Labour MP David Crausby says the Prime Minister is right not to give into bully boy tactics by demonstrators.

But he insists that he understands why there is such widespread anger and called on the Premier and the rest of the cabinet to listen to ordinary people.

Mr Crausby blamed a lack of confidence in the Tories as an effective opposition for the outcry but said the government could not afford to be seen as out of touch.

He added: "The public do not expect the Government to be bullied by pressure groups of any kind. The ballot box has to remain supreme but we ignore the will of the people at our peril."

Mr Crausby was speaking as an ex-Conservative MP came to Bolton to persuade thousands of voters in the town who deserted the Tories at the last election not to switch back.

Shaun Woodward -- the former Tory director of communications credited with inventing the "double whammy" phrase before defecting to Labour -- visited the Jubilee Centre in Halliwell as part of a national tour.

His message was that William Hague's lurch to the right will divide the nation and lead to the privatisation of the NHS and schools.

He insisted the Government will listen to concerns over the cost of fuel but added: "Nobody really wants a Prime Minister who will buckle under threats by a small number of protesters and pickets who are holding the country to ransom and stopping supplies getting to our hospitals.

"Yes people want to pay less for fuel but they are starting to see that the reason it has gone up so much is that the cost of fuel has trebled.

"Over the past two days things have changed and people are realising that the protesters are only giving them half a picture."

Mr Woodward is the MP for Witney in West Oxfordshire.