A reporter from The News, Portsmouth, scooped the nationals after getting an exclusive interview with an expenses row MP.

Gosport MP Sir Peter Viggers had repeatedly refused to speak to any media since news broke that he had tried to claim £1,645 for a floating duck island, left, at his country home.

But after weeks of trying to get him to speak, including confronting him at a meeting in Westminster and at his constituency office in the town, Sir Peter finally broke his silence and spoke to News reporter Rob Dabrowski.

And Rob's persistence was rewarded with a genuine scoop when Sir Peter revealed he was now looking to auction off the infamous duck house for charity.

The story was on the front page of The News the next day and was picked up by the national papers and TV news channels.

It even made headlines in the Washington Post.

Said Rob: "It was really satisfying to finally get some answers from Sir Peter.

"He had been really elusive and it was hard work trying to track him down, but the readers of The News deserved some answers."

Assistant news editor Paul Foster said Rob's persistence in tracking down Sir Peter led to the scoop.

"What Rob has done here was a superb piece of journalism. He never gave up, despite Sir Peter's refusal to speak."

Meanwhile another regional paper celebrating a big political scoop was the Manchester Evening News.

Its politics reporter David Ottewell secured the first interview with local MP James Purnell following his sensational Cabinet resignation last Thursday which came close to toppling premier Gordon Brown.

In it, the Staybridge and Hyde MP revealed he had "no regrets" about quitting the Cabinet - and denied he was part of a Blairite plot against the Prime Minister.

MEN news editor Paul Gallagher said: "I would imagine his decision to come to us was based on the fact that there is no more effective way of reaching the people who really matter to him than through the Manchester Evening News. We reach his constituency far better than any other media organisation.

"As all MPs know, we don't have an axe to grind. We are not aligned to any political point of view and as such have no fixed agenda to try and trip them up to score points.

"We can promise we will come at a story with a straight bat."

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