scoffed at claims he has suffered catastrophic financial losses.

Mr. Allason, a best-selling spy novelist, was included in a list of 23 Tory MPs said to have been badly stung by the slumping fortunes of Lloyd's insurance house.

The list was disclosed this week in the British House of Commons by controversial Labour MP Mr. Peter Hain.

If all the MPs on the list are declared bankrupt the Tory Government could lose its 21-seat majority in the 651-seat House of Commons.

Under English law a bankrupt cannot stand for election, or if already elected, cannot sit in the chamber and vote.

But Mr. Allason yesterday declared: "It is absolute rubbish. The claim I have made catastrophic losses is totally absurd.'' Speaking to The Royal Gazette from his Parliamentary office he accused Mr.

Hain of "mischief-making.'' In a Commons motion Mr. Hain lists MPs who, he says, face heavy losses and possible bankruptcy.

He claims they were members of "catastrophic loss-making syndicates'', with losses totalling hundreds of millions of pounds.

They could, therefore, face individual bankruptcy and disqualification.

Mr. Hain has demanded a public inquiry into Lloyd's by Industry Secretary Mr.

Michael Heseltine.

And he warned the Tory Government could lose its fragile majority if the MPs on the list were declared bankrupt.

According to a report in the influential British newspaper The Times the MPs on Mr. Hain's list declared their membership of Lloyd's in the last register of Members' Interests published on January 13.

Mr. Hain apparently drew up his list through studying the Lloyd's blue book.

About 3,000 names were said by Lloyd's to be liable for losses totalling $3 billion, Mr. Hain is reported by The Times as saying.

But Mr. Allason, MP for Torbay, yesterday said he was not a member of any syndicate which suffered catastrophic losses.

"I have been a member of Lloyd's for 18 years and I have never had to write a cheque to Lloyd's.'' Mr. Allason, who is married to a Bermudian and writes under the nom-de-plume Nigel West, said he had asked Mr. Hain to produce evidence, or table an amendment in the Commons deleting his name.

"There is not a grain of truth in what he is saying,'' he added.

Mr. Allason said Mr. Hain's list was based on poor research or a lack of understanding about Lloyd's.

He said long-standing members of Lloyd's -- those who had been with the insurance house ten years or more -- had built up substantial non-taxable reserve funds.

"If there is any loss it is taken out of our reserve,'' he added.