IT APPEARS as though the time for "straight talking on sensitive issues" is over for Macclesfield MP Sir Nicholas Winterton.

After the outspoken Tory caused a storm with his views on British Muslims, published in last week's Macclesfield Express, the right-wing MP has now gone to ground.

He claimed he was too busy to be interviewed by a film crew from Granada Reports on Thursday, July 6, and the Express was also told he was in meetings all day yesterday (Tuesday) when we enquired about the response he had received.

Instead of speaking directly to Sir Nick, his press secretary Paul Morgan issued a short statement saying: "The response has been overwhelming.

"Sir Nicholas has received representations from abroad, from across the United Kingdom and a huge number from his constituency.

"It's been an overwhelmingly positive response. There has just been one phone message expressing a little concern."

The furore, which reached the attention of the national media, was sparked by his monthly column for the Macclesfield Express.

In it, he claimed that multiculturalism was to blame for the terrorist threat facing the country and that "agitating so-called Muslim community leaders should be ashamed of themselves and held to account".

He also added that the ethnic minority should "stop politicising dress, such as wearing the hijab and burkha, they should learn English, they should not return to their homelands to get a spouse, cease forced marriages and accept once and for all that the United Kingdom is not, and never will be, an Islamic state."

Despite such comments causing an embarrassment to Conservative leader David Cameron, with the Tory party distancing themselves from such views, Sir Nick took a defiant stance.

"It is time straight talking took place on the sensitive issue of integration and asylum," he said.

Chairman of the Macclesfield Conservative Party, Elizabeth Gilliland, was also unavailable for comment yesterday.