SHADOW Northern Ireland secretary Andrew Mackay grappled with an intruder who barged into the home he shares with wife Julie Kirkbride, Tory MP for Bromsgrove.
Mr Mackay knocked the woman to the ground and held her for several minutes before police arrived at his Westminster house last night.
Ms Kirkbride, who was confronted by an armed burglar in the house earlier this year, was left shaken but unhurt.
The couple were eating dinner when the doorbell went shortly after 9pm and Ms Kirkbride went to answer it.
She was confronted by the stranger, who barged past her screaming for help.
Her husband, MP for Bracknell, rushed to her aid, hitting the woman to the floor and holding her until officers arrived.
His adult son Hamish, who was upstairs in the bath, raised the alarm using his mobile phone.
The couple's two-month-old son Angus was asleep in another room.
The couple later learned the woman had been released from an institution and called for tougher laws to protect the "innocent and vulnerable".
"Mercifully, Julie was not alone with our nanny and two-month-old baby," Mr Mackay said.
"Apparently this woman had left an institution elsewhere in the country where they were unable to detain her.
"It was a frightening and potentially dangerous situation."
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