North Wiltshire MP James Gray will be spending part of his Christmas holidays working to help keep RAF Lyne-ham open.

The Tory MP is heading a campaign to try to stop the Ministry of Defence shutting the Hercules base.

Its future is in the melting pot because the RAF is to buy new aircraft to replace both the Hercules at Lyneham and the VC10s and Tristars that operate from nearby RAF Brize Norton.

In view of this MoD says it will be carrying out a study to determine the future cost effectiveness of the two bases together with that at St Mawgan in Cornwall.

Officials maintain it is a routine procedure, but Mr Gray, who is the Shadow Defence Minister, believes it could be used as an excuse to sell Lyneham off for housing to raise money for the Treasury.

A £11.25 billion European defence deal has at last been signed to order 196 Airbus A400M military transporters, the plane which will even-tually replace half of RAF Lyneham's Hercules fleet.

Mr Gray agreed the deal was good news for Britain, but said the question now was whether the A400M goes to Lyneham or Brize Norton.

This week he was at RAF Strike Command head-quarters arguing the case for Lyneham with Air Chief Marshall Sir John Day, the RAF's most senior officer.

Later he flew to Nato head-quarters in Brussels where he says he was encouraged by the reaction of the RAF officers he lobbied.

"Now I am helping to prepare a written submission outlining the local and defence reasons why many people, including former RAF officers, believe Lyne-ham should be kept open.

"We believe it is important that the MoD does not put all its eggs in one basket and leave itself with an alternative option.

"It needs to be aware of such things as the weather, which is often different at the airfields with fog at Brize Norton and clear skies at Lyneham.

"Defence Minister Adam Ingram has promised me that he will make sure that the views of local people will be taken into consideration by the strategic review panel."

Twenty five of the A400Ms will come into service towards the end of the decade to replace the RAF's ageing Hercules C130K models, half of which are being replaced by the J series.

At the same time the VC10s and Tristars at RAF Brize Norton are going to be replaced by another, as yet unbuilt, aircraft called the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA).

The RAF's Hercules aircraft fly the world from Lyneham and are at the moment waiting to hear if they will be called in to help with the deployment of the UK led peace keeping force for Afghanistan.

For years the Hercules has been regarded as the work horse of the RAF but many of the aircraft are coming to the end of their working lives.

The A400M will have a 50 per cent greater payload and the flexibility to operate both strategic and tactical roles.

If RAF Lyneham does close it will be the latest in a gradual reduction of military bases in Wiltshire.

There were once 34 airfields in the county and today there are just six.

The other countries involved in the deal to buy the A400M with Britain are Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.