Canterbury MP Julian Brazier believes controversial company Veolia should not be allowed to bid for the city council’s waste and street cleaning contract.

He is backing objectors who say the firm should be excluded from the process because of its operations in the Israeli-occupied territories.

But the council says it is obliged by European law and competition rules to consider its tender.

Now Mr Brazier has written to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles asking him to look into the issue.

He said: “My particular concern is that Veolia are tendering for Canterbury. Veolia have been intimately involved in highly illegal activities in the occupied territories.

“These include establishing and operating transport systems, which are both run on an apartheid basis, and make the settlement process even more irreversible than it is at the moment.”

He added: “It seems to me monstrous that laws in this country should forbid councils from taking into account, should they choose to do so, breaches of the law which have taken place outside the EU.”