IT is always a gamble to try to catch the Speaker's eye at Prime Minister's Question Time. But on the last PMQs before Christmas I was lucky.

There was a very important question to raise with Tony Blair. On November 24, 1999, I asked him to keep the promise made by his Health Secretary, who said in the Commons in June 1998 that no patient "will be denied the drugs that they need. That is a guarantee".

I was specifically referring to my constituents with multiple sclerosis, who need Beta Interferon to treat their progressive disease. I wanted to remind the Prime Minister that, more than two years after that promise, there was still no decision from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence.

Ministers have passed the responsibility for assessing whether the drug should be prescribed on the NHS to NICE.

My constituents' lives have deteriorated. In many cases, patients will be beyond the help of that much-needed treatment. The Prime Minister has let down patients very badly.

All Mr Blair could say in response was that it is the "right thing" for NICE to make its assessment.

But there was to be a further blow for my constituents and others like them. On December 22, NICE let it be known that it will not make a decision until July 2001. We had been "promised' a decision by January.

Putting back the decision by another six months will inevitably mean that some patients whose doctors think they would benefit from treatment will not be able to get it.

The hard facts are that their physical state and their quality of life will suffer.

I am appalled by this delay and reminded, bitterly, that "a verbal agreement is not worth the paper it is written on".

My battle with the Prime Minister will continue.