ANDY Slaughter has slammed political rival Greg Hands for ‘interfering’ in his constituency over comments made about the potential demolition of the West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates.

The Hammersmith MP was left fuming when Mr Hands, MP for neighbouring Chelsea and Fulham, posted a blog on his website calling the plans to redevelop the Earls Court area a ‘once in a lifetime opportunity’.

Some residents are fighting the scheme, which could mean their homes being demolished to make way for four new urban ‘villages’ of new apartments, shops and restaurants.

They have been backed by Mr Slaughter, but Mr Hands says the scheme will ‘bring huge improvements’ to the neighbourhood, ‘changing the lives of thousands of people for the better’, and that new homes, promised to affected residents by the council, would replace ‘a community that was badly built with divisive high walls’.

Mr Slaughter, responding to Mr Hands’ comments, said: “This shows a sneering contempt for the families and elderly people who have lived in this community – some for 50 years.”

Mr Hands later insisted on Twitter that large swathes of the consultation area are part of his constituency.

The public consultation into the scheme ends later this month and it is then expected the council will sign a £100million deal to sell its land to developers EC Properties.