NORTH-East MP Peter Mandelson has brushed off threats to oust him by local party members.

A coalition of Labour Party members in his Hartlepool constituency is backing moves to get him deselected after a row over the possible siting of a new nuclear power station near the town.

About 50 per cent of Hartlepool's 411 Labour Party members are said to be so disaffected with their MP that they are ready to vote on his de-selection.

The latest threat to his controversial political career was sparked when his aid, Hartlepool councillor Steve Wallace, called for a vote of no confidence in Keith Fisher, then president of the constituency party.

Before the vote could be taken at the meeting last month, Mr Fisher resigned his post, claiming he had been pressurised by Mandelson supporters who blamed him for a resolution against plans for a nuclear power station at Hartlepool.

Speaking yesterday, Mr Mandelson, who resigned as Northern Ireland Secretary last year after the Hinduja cash-for-passport scandal, denied his seat was under threat.

He said: "There is no such problem. There are half-a-dozen people with an anti-nuclear view that the rest of the Labour Party and people in the town do not agree with."

Mr Fisher said he was neutral on the subject of nuclear power, but that he was "a servant to the party", who had to follow the local party resolution against further nuclear power in Hartlepool.

He said yesterday: "The resolution, which I followed, was to oppose further nuclear development but support development of other energy forms.

"I have never had a row with Peter Mandelson.

"Things went downhill when, at a previous meeting, the branch secretary, Councillor Sandra Fenwick, was reduced to tears by Mandelson. He accused her of allowing the initial meeting, where the resolution was passed, to go ahead.

"She has subsequently resigned. When Steve Wallace proposed a vote of no confidence in me, I also resigned, there and then.

"During my time as president, I used to try to protect Peter Mandelson, but more and more people were asking me where he was all the time and I was running out of excuses for him."

Now a growing group of long-serving party members wants to whip up support for the MP's de-selection.

A general committee meeting on Wednesday is expected to hear the issue of de-selection officially raised by members for the first time.