MID-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff has added his support to a call to stop any further funding for psychological and psychiatric research into ME.

National ME charity the 25 per cent ME Group, which is supported by the Worcestershire ME Support Group and represents severely-affected patients, has made the plea to the Medical Research Council.

Mr Luff, who is a patron of the Worcestershire ME Support Group, said: "It is time for many members of the medical establishment to stop insulting ME sufferers and to recognise the neurological origins of the complaint.

"I have met too many ME sufferers who are insulted by the way they are treated by backward-looking members of the medical community.

"It is time for all of those involved in researching the condition to address its real causes and to abandon their prejudices."

Simon Lawrence, from the 25 per cent ME Group, said: "If the funding available for cancer research was all directed at how cancer patients think and feel about their disease instead of the physiology of the illness there would be a national outcry.

"For years, the severely-ill ME patients we represent have seen the counci refuse funding for biomedical research while giving grants for psychological research."