THE Home Secretary has rejected calls from grieving North-East families for a new offence of "vehicle homicide".

But Minister Jack Straw told the parents of drink-driver victims Susan Briggs and Angela Ovington that the Government is planning stiffer sentences for drivers who kill while drunk.

At a meeting at the House of Commons last night, Mr Straw told Pauline and Dennis Briggs, of Gilesgate Moor, Durham, and Beatrice and Ray Ovington, of Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, County Durham, that a new Offences Against the Person Bill was being drawn up by the Home Office.

At the meeting, in the House of Commons, he said there was no reason why, in certain circumstances, the sentence for manslaughter could not mean life.

Both couples, whose call for a vehicle homicide offence had been backed by a 5,000 signature petition, have criticised the eight-year sentence Allan Jackson received for causing their daughters' deaths by dangerous driving.

They were killed after a night out in Huddersfield, along with their friend, Victoria Fisher, from Rochdale.

Mrs Briggs said the Home Secretary was very sympathetic.

"While he couldn't promise to change the law, he agreed that the car should be considered a dangerous weapon in the same way as a gun or a knife," she said.

Durham City MP Gerry Steinberg, who was at the meeting, said: "Jack Straw agreed that the present law was not adequate. I believe that the punishment must fit the crime.

"Somebody who goes out after drinking, then drives a car has to accept the seriousness of the crime. Being drunk must not be taken as mitigating circumstances".