76896-289A PURTON man has reported the leader of the Conservative party as a nuisance caller.

Maurice Card, 60, was sitting at home in Vasterne Close looking forward to watching Liverpool play Juventus in the Champions' League when he was interrupted by a phone call.

When he picked up the receiver he was annoyed to hear a recorded election message from Michael Howard.

Mr Card says he has recently been plagued by pre-recorded nuisance calls and Mr Howard's message was the last straw.

He was so angry he phoned a BT hotline for reporting nuisance callers.

"I was waiting for the game to start when the phone went," he said.

"I picked up the phone and this voice said 'Hello. This is Michael Howard . . . "

Mr Card immediately put the phone down.

He said: "I want MPs to stop nuisance calls, not to make them.

"I seem to get a lot of these nuisance calls, usually for Caribbean cruises, but this was the first time when I actually knew who the culprit was."

Mr Card, a widower who works part-time for Nationwide, says that he was not making a political point.

And he would not reveal who he will be voting for in the General Election.

"It certainly didn't endear Michael Howard to me, but if it had been Tony Blair or the ginger-haired Scot I would have felt the same," he said.

"If I was Prime Minister the first thing I would do at Number 10 would be to abolish nuisance calls.

Mr Card said that when he rang to make a complaint to the special BT nuisance line he was laughed at.

He said: "When they asked me who my complaint was about and I said it was Michael Howard, the call centre staff started giggling."

The North Wiltshire Conservative candidate James Gray said he couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

"I'm sorry he was upset but why he is so upset eludes me," he said.

"People often complain that they don't hear enough from politicians.

"I'd have thought a message from the leader of a political party laying out what the party's policies are would be welcome."

A spokeswoman for the Conservative Party said: "This type of campaigning is entirely within the guidelines.

"There was a phone number within the message that this person could have rung in order to be removed from our lists."

David Nash, the Labour candidate for North Wiltshire, was amused by the incident.He said: "All parties use the telephone to canvass opinion with potential supporters but the Tories obviously don't even want to hear the views of the voter.

"They just want to bombard them with junk phone calls."

David Andrew