CAMPAIGNERS who are fighting cuts to Hampshire children’s centres last night rounded on an MP who accused them of “political mischief making” during Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.

They described Gosport MP Caroline Dinenage as “despicable” and “two-faced” after she insisted plans to cut the number of Hampshire Sure Start centres from 81 to 53 were protecting frontline services.

Sparking a raucous reaction from MPs as she accused local Liberal Demo-crats of using the issue as a political football, she went on to call on the Prime Minister to welcome the county council’s approach.

She said: “Despite some local party-political mischief-making about the future of our valuable Sure Start services, would the Prime Minister join me in welcoming Hampshire County Council’s proposal to protect frontline Sure Start services while saving public money by cutting back office costs?”

Mr Cameron replied: “She is absolutely right.”

Last night leading campaigner Catherine Ovenden was in tears as she spoke to the Daily Echo. She said: “I been crying ever since. We’ve put so much time, effort and money into fighting this. It’s an embarrasment to women that she giggled and flirted in Prime Minister’s Questions.

“I rang her office but she wouldn’t take my call. They said she wasn’t there. She came along and supported us. Now everyone feels like they’ve been stabbed in the back. We really believed in her.”

An army of mums with babies in buggies have marched on the council’s headquarters in Winchester over the plans, handing in a petition of more than 12,000 names to council leader Cllr Ken Thornber and director of children’s services John Coughlan.

The county council is also facing legal action over claims the consultation on the plans is not legitimate as the £6m cuts from the Sure Start budget were approved weeks before the deadline for people’s views.

The county council insists there has been a “great deal misunderstanding” over the plans, insisting that in the vast majority of cases these will be mergers of management and services and will not involve the closure of sites and buildings.

But the Save Our Children’s Centre campaign questions how that can happen when one third of the budget is being slashed.

Ms Dinenage insisted the attack was directed at local Liberal Democrat campaigners who “seek to make political gain in the run-up to May’s elections by playing on peoples fears by making misleading comments about cuts to well-loved local children’s centres”.

She added: “Sure Start is too important and valuable to be used as a political football in this way.”

CAMPAIGNERS will be marching through the streets of Fareham today to protest at the plans to slash the number of Sure Start centres.