Senior Conservative backbencher and parliamentary traditionalist, Sir Patrick Cormack, has rejected email as a tool for political communicators.

The "self important" Staffordshire MP has angered Tory whips after telling the party fixers that he would tear up any emails they might send him.

"I don't have email," he told the Times. "There's a very good case to say that the over-use of modern technology depersonalises contact with constituents.

"People can ring my office and I reply to letters within 48 hours. Nobody has ever accused me of being less than diligent. I'm not an antediluvian but a discriminator."