Canterbury MP Julian Brazier has joined in the row over the city council's controversial decision to invite Veolia to tender for its waste collection and street cleaning contract.

Objectors say the company is involved in illegal activities in Israili-occupied territories and should be excluded from the process.

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: "I am deeply concerned that there seems to be an anomaly whereby local authorities are, quite rightly, allowed to take into account in tendering processes illegal activities which companies tendering have committed within the EU, but are not allowed to take account of such activities outside the EU.

"My particular concern is that Veolia are tendering for Canterbury. I have never taken part in any anti-Israeli boycott but 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: "I appreciate that we are hemmed in by EU legislation but 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. I should be grateful for your thoughts on this."