Canterbury MP Julian Brazier led a campaign against the sell-off of Ministry of Defence housing which might have prevented homes at Howe Barracks being leased to a London council.

On Tuesday it emerged that Canterbury City Council had lost a bidding war with Redbridge Council to take on 147 family homes at the now decommissioned barracks in Littlebourne Road.

The Conservative’s opposition to his own government plans in 1996 earned him the title of backbencher of the year at a newspaper's Parliamentarian of the Year Awards.

Mr Brazier, a former paratrooper, said: “I led a rebellion of 200 MPs against the sell-off of the married quarters estate.

“I was against it because I wanted to protect service families and I spent six months working on nothing else.

“We lost the vote and I am very sorry that it was sold off. It has left the Ministry of Defence with no influence over the homes.”

In 1996, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sold more than 57,000 homes to property firm Annington. It then leased the homes back to the MoD.

Annington took control of the Howe Barracks site last year and invited organisations to bid for the homes.

Redbridge Council, which sits on the Essex border and has more than 8,000 names on its waiting list, out-muscled Canterbury, which has a waiting list of 2,500 names.The bidding process was sealed and neither council knew how much the other had offered.

“I’m very sad that Redbridge Council has got these properties,” said Mr Brazier, who is now a junior defence minister.

“Canterbury had put in a good bid, but the London borough is far bigger and has far more resources at its disposal.

“It’s important that we don’t ostracise these people who come down.

“I also know for a fact that all those people who come to live here from Redbridge will have chosen to do so and no one is being forced.

“Nevertheless, it’s important to make them feel welcome.”

Mr Brazier abstained on the vote to sell-off the homes after forcing late concessions on the scheme from the then housing minister.

The Parliamentarian of the Year Awards are run by the Spectator magazine. The backbencher of the year award is given to an MP who “has to be professional backbencher, not a frontbencher in-waiting, not a toady, not a whips’ nark”.