BOLTON MP Brian Iddon has revealed that his high-flying career as a chemist and politician came as the result of a university entrance fiddle. The former Salford University lecturer and a nationally famous chemist has discovered that his tutors at Hull University bent the rules to admit him. And he told fellow MPs in the Commons, had they not been prepared to cheat to get him in, he would not have been able to go on to higher education.

The information of the rule-bending was given to him by his professor at Hull, Norman Bellamy Chapman, at a special reception for MPs who were Hull graduates, at the Commons.

Dr Iddon, Labour MP for Bolton South East, revealed the fiddle to his colleagues during an education debate.

The 57-year-old son of a Tarleton market gardener, said: "I went to university in the late 1950s, and I could never understand why it was so difficult to gain entry.

"I came from a very poor educational background and had no language training.

"Much to my surprise, when I looked for a university that might accept me, I found that nearly all of them asked for a foreign language as part of their matriculation requirements.

"After much thrashing about, I was lucky, when the University of Hull accepted me.

"I learned only a few weeks ago that it bent the rules to do so, but I have always been grateful for the opportunity that it afforded me."

Dr Iddon said that, without Hull's help and a full grant, he would have been unable to go to university.

He told the BEN today: "I only found out from Professor Chapman - to whom I owe a great deal - when he was at the Commons the other day that they bent the rules to let me in.

"The requirement for a modern language was soon to be scrapped and he decided to ignore it to allow me to study.

"I am very grateful. Without his help it would certainly have meant I couldn't have got to university for another few years."

Before becoming an MP, Dr Iddon developed an international reputation as a chemist and a national one for his famous chemical fireworks display which he took round the country on behalf of the Royal Society of Chemists, giving his last performance in the Commons last year.

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