The Labour leader of a council in Bucks has said he is “not a liar” after a Tory MP accused him of “scaremongering” about the storage of nuclear waste.

Councillor Peter Marland, the leader of Milton Keynes City Council, called on the government to block “proposals for the long-term storage” of nuclear waste in the city on Tuesday.

The Conservative MP for Milton Keynes North Ben Everitt said that claims there were plans to store “higher activity radioactive waste in the city” were “false”.

He demanded a “full public apology” from councillor Marland for what he called “pathetic, shameful, scaremongering”.

The council leader responded to the MP’s comments during a full meeting of Milton Keynes City Council the following day.

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Cllr Marland told the meeting that the council was alerted that a site in the north of Milton Keynes bordering west Northampton had “passed an initial sift” from the Government body responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste, Nuclear Waste Services, which was “keen to take that site forward”.

He claimed he did not attend a meeting between officers from the council and Nuclear Waste Services, adding that the final decision over a site for the storage of nuclear waste rests with the Government.

He told councillors: “I think placing a nuclear waste site in the north of Milton Keynes is absolutely bizarre and crazy.

“Therefore, I make no apology for asking the public of Milton Keynes – which is Nuclear Waste Services’ own policy about whether to garner local support – whether the local support was there.

“In doing so, a member of Parliament called me a liar. That means, under the law, I am able to disclose information to show that I am not a liar.”