Michael Foster has received death threats before

The warning was made by telephone to the Labour MP's office as he prepared to vote for a ban on hunting with dogs.

The message, which was made on 15 September and which Mr Foster believes is from a hunting campaigner, warned him he would be dead in three weeks.

Police in Worcester, where the MP lives, said they were taking the matter seriously and had made an action plan.

Mr Foster, 41, said he first received a death threat in 1997 after he introduced a private members' bill to outlaw hunting with dogs.

The extremists are doing a disservice to the cause they claim to support Michael Foster MP

More recently, the MP said a group of supporters who stormed a local Labour Party meeting in Kidderminster last month left a note behind saying: "We'll be back to get you, Foster".

He compared people who resorted to such behaviour with football hooligans, who might argue that by resorting to violence they were defending their club's honour.

"I want to make it clear that this type of intimation will never succeed," Mr Foster told BBC News Online.

Police action

"If you back down in the face of intimidation, you lose all credibility as a politician.

"What would that say about the views I hold?"

He said that he believed the majority of pro-hunt campaigners would be appalled as he was at the death threat, adding: "The extremists are doing a disservice to the cause they claim to support."

Ch Insp Sharon Gibbons of West Mercia Police said: "We are aware of a threat that was made by telephone to Mr Foster's office and have put plans in place that enable us to take appropriate action should it be necessary.

"We always take seriously any matters, such as threats like this, that are reported to us and respond accordingly, including advising on appropriate security measures."