BURY South Tory MP David Sumberg last night joined a Tory rebellion over the Government's crackdown on handguns.

He was one of more than 90 Conservative rebels seeking to water down new legislation banning large calibre pistols and confining those of .22 calibre and below to gun clubs with secure armouries.

Last night Home Secretary Michael Howard was seeking to reverse three amendments from the House of Lords.

Mr Sumberg voted in favour of the recommendation of the Cullen Report into the Dunblane massacre that pistols should be disassembled with the main part kept in the shooting enthusiast's home and the firing mechanism in the gun club. He also voted in favour of increased compensation for those gun clubs put out of business or affected by the legislation - a vote in which he was joined by Bolton North East Liberal Democrat MP Peter Thurnham.

Mr Thurnham also voted for increased compensation for gun dealerships - a division in which Mr Sumberg abstained.

Mr Thurnham abstained in the division over allowing the keeping of disassembled guns at home and Bolton South East Labour MP David Young - a consistent opponent of the crackdown - did not vote in any of the divisions.

Despite the rebellion the Government succeeded in reversing the watering down imposed in the Lords.

But now supporters of the shooting lobby hope that the House of Lords will reinstate the changes, wrecking the bill and possibly preventing it becoming law before the General Election.

But Shadow Scottish Secretary George Robertson, who lives in Dunblane and whose children attended the primary school where Thomas Hamilton went on his deadly rampage, warned that to do so would merely hasten the abolition of the voting rights of hereditary peers.

Mr Howard made clear today that he hopes to have the legislation on the statute book before the anniversary of the massacre in three weeks time.

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