MICHAEL Howard has warned that 40,000 homes will be built on green field sites in and around Ashford and the rest of Kent under Government plans.

The Conservative leader and Kent MP made his claim as he chose the county to launch a poster campaign highlighting his party’s opposition to Labour’s plans.

Speaking at the launch in Bethersden, near Ashford, he said a future Conservative government would let local councils have a far greater say in what kind of development would be allowed.

“Labour, with the explicit support of the Liberal Democrats, plans to build more than 100,000 new buildings in Kent in the next 25 years. Forty thousand of those will be built on green field sites. In Ashford, Labour wants to build 30,000 new homes, doubling the size of the town. More than 20,000 of those will be in Ashford.”

He warned that John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister, had called Ashford an “urban growth area".

Mr Howard stressed: “If he has his way, this beautiful countryside at the heart of the Garden of England will become almost as ugly as those words of the Deputy Prime Minister.”

Ashford MP Damian Green, who accompanied Mr Howard for the launch, said: “Ashford will bear the brunt of the Government’s plans and we will lose a significant area of green belt.”

But Labour derided the Tories’ warnings. Opposition Labour group leader at KCC Cllr Mike Eddy said: “This is the usual Tory hypocrisy. The Government is trying to provide economic growth and homes for local people and the Tories are banging the old ‘Nimby’ drum, which is grossly distorting the arguments.”