AN MP from Greater Manchester has been sent home from Westminster amid fears he has contracted swine flu.

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, began showing symptoms last week.

Doctors at Westminster told him to return to his Denton home.

He has also been given anti-viral medication Tamiflu.

Mr Gwynne revealed he was ill on the Internet through his Twitter page.

He said he was 'on Tamiflu now. Just put acute tiredness down 2 recess being near, then sore throat n hot sweats started not good'.

'Acute tiredness'

A spokeswoman for Mr Gwynne said: "Andrew is feeling much better now. He finished his medication on Monday and was hoping to return to work on Tuesday."

Mr Gwynne tweeted on Monday: "Only a headache left of all the symptoms! Last tamiflu 2day 2. Still dr's orders 2 rest.."

Meanwhile Health Secretary Andy Burnham announced that a national flu service will be launched later this week.

Mr Burnham, MP for Leigh, said the phone and website service will be able to provide flu diagnosis and access to drugs without the need to go to GPs.

He also defended the government against claims from opposition parties that the service was a month late.

In the past week, there have been 55,000 new cases of swine flu.

'In-fighting'

Mr Burnham said: "Technology to launch the service has been available for some time. But with these latest figures and drawing on advice from the field we have now reached a point where this service is required.

"To act any sooner would have been a distraction to health staff dealing with it."

And in the face of claims of conflicting advice to pregnant women, Mr Burnham also denied that the guidance had changed since the start of the outbreak.

Some reports at the weekend suggested that women should even consider not getting pregnant and those that already are should avoid crowded places.

But Mr Burnham said the official advice was that people should only reconsider unnecessary travel and being in very crowded places.

The Liberal Democrats have criticised government departments' in-fighting for leading to the hotline being launched late.

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley agreed government dithering had 'damaged the ability of the NHS to respond'.