OLD Labour MP Brian Sedgemore yesterday incurred the wrath of some of his new women colleagues in the Commons after branding them as Stepford Wives with a ''chip inserted into their brain to keep them on message''.

The veteran MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch also accused many New Labour women MPs of having ''collectively put down women and children in the vote on lone parent benefits''.

Stirling MP Anne McGuire led calls for Mr Sedgemore to be disciplined for his outspoken comments in a speech at the Tate Gallery in London on New Labour and the future of fine art under the Government.

Mr Sedgemore, famous for his occasional maverick outbursts, joked that he regarded himself as a ''New Labour'' MP: ''Like all New Labour MPs, I've been programmed by Millbank to stay on message for 1000 years without having my batteries topped up. As such, I should never admit to having given this talk.''

He then delivered the fierce attack on some of the new women MPs who joined Labour ranks in the Commons on May 1.

Mr Sedgemore said: ''Few of them have shown any interest in culture. A new Parliament replete with cultural inadequacies on the distaff side is no better than the old Parliament, replete as it was with artistic testosterone morons.''

The Stepford Wives was a sex-in-the-suburbs novel and film about a group of American husbands in search of the perfect wife, who killed their own spouses and replaced them with identical life-like automatons programmed to do the cooking, housekeeping, washing-up, and dedicate themselves to making their men happy.

Mr Sedgemore also said the Millennium Dome project, now being overseen by Minister without Portfolio Peter Mandelson, would surely go down in history as ''Mandy's Folly''.

Mrs McGuire reacted furiously to the Stepford jibe, saying: ''He will be calling us witches next.

''I think his comments have to be considered by those in the parliamentary party who are responsible for discipline.''

Glasgow Maryhill MP Maria Fyfe took exception to Mr Sedgemore's condemnation of women MPs who voted in favour of cutting benefits to lone parents.

Mrs Fyfe, who voted against the measure herself, defended her female colleagues, saying: ''It is stupid to write people off because of one mistake.''

Ms Peta Buscombe, the Tory Party's vice-chairman with responsibility for women, said: ''It seems New Labour women MPs who were steamrollered into Parliament by all-women short lists will never be taken seriously, even by their own colleagues, nor ever rid themselves of the quota women tag.''

A Labour Party spokesman said: 'It was a silly speech. This MP is permanently off beam. He will be treated with contempt by his parliamentary colleagues. We won't give him the satisfaction of trawling through it.''

Mr Sedgemore later stood by his speech, including his attack on his own party.

He rebutted a suggestion by the Department of Culture, Media, and Sport, and reported by the BBC, that he had never shown any obvious interest in the arts before nor had asked any questions on the subject.

He said his interest in the arts had been long and profound.