Bosses at Lotus Cars tonight disputed fresh claims by a Norfolk MP in the House of Commons that the hunt is on to find a Chinese buyer for the firm.

Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom, which bought Lotus's parent company Proton in January has in the last week scotched rumours that it was seeking a quick sale of the loss making sports car maker after Chinese firm China Youngman, which already has links with Lotus, was tipped as a potential buyer.

But South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon told MPs on Tuesday that accountancy firm KPMG had been appointed to find a Chinese buyer.

'The fact that KPMG has been appointed with a mandate to sell Group Lotus to the Chinese is not an encouraging sign,' Mr Bacon said.

KPMG declined to comment and referred all press inquiries to either Lotus or DRB-Hicom.

Lotus disputed the MP's comments but was unable to elaborate or confirm or deny if KPMG were involved.

In a statement Lotus said: 'We are disappointed that lots of the facts presented to the House of Commons were inaccurate, but we will sort this with Mr. Bacon directly.'

The MP declined to state the source of his information but said so far the nobody had sought to correct anything he had said.

'Lotus is an important local employer and it has a responsibility to get its communications right,' he said. 'I haven't found any corrections to anything I have said, but if there are any inaccuracies, everyone should know not just me.

'The future of the company may be at risk and it's unfair on the workforce not to tell them what's going on.'