A MERSEYSIDE MP last night strongly defended his decision to commission a poll on Everton FC’s proposed stadium move and claim the cost back in Parliamentary allowances.

The ICM survey, commissioned by Knowsley North’s George Howarth, found a narrow majority in favour of the football club’s planned development in Kirkby, in partnership with Tesco.

But it provoked a storm of protest from campaigners against the move out of the city boundaries.

Almost two years ago, Mr Howarth claimed the £8,283 cost of the poll from his communications allowance.

Last week, when censored MPs’ expenses were released online, a national newspaper reported that thousands of web visitors were asking why an unnamed MP claimed “thousands of pounds to find out what his constituents thought about a major development involving a supermarket and a football club”.

Last night, Mr Howarth admitted he was the MP in question.

He said: “To some extent, the question answers itself.

“The Tesco/Everton proposal involves £400m of investment in Kirkby and is one of the biggest local issues we have faced in living memory.

“Inevitably, it was the subject of great controversy and, at the time I commissioned the poll, claims and counter-claims about what people thought were being bandied about based on little or no credible evidence.”