AN MP has described how he told "toerag" muggers to "bugger off" when they attempted to rob him on his way home from the Houses of Parliament.

North West Durham MP Richard Holden tweeted: "Some toerags attempted to rob me - including threatening me with weapon they alluded to have in their possession. It was a little scary but I fortunately managed to get away."

Speaking to The Northern Echo, he said: "Two lads in their late teens cycled up to me and demanded that I give them my phone and I said no. They pressed the point by saying "do you want to get stabbed?"

"At that point I told them to bugger off very loudly and tried to push past them. A couple of people further down the street noticed and one of the robbers saw one of them possibly getting their phone out to take photos. At that point they decided to do a runner."

He added: "I was mugged when I was a student so I have experienced it before. I was just lucky there were other people about.

"I reported it to the police. The most important thing in these situations is to report it and hope that they get caught, so that other people are not affected.

"The Met police officers were very good and responded very quickly."

The incident happened on Tuesday evening.