The British government was on Tuesday accused of being part of a “conspiracy of silence” over Dow Chemical's controversial sponsorship of the London Olympics as MPs, cutting across party lines, called for the multi-million pound deal to be scrapped because of the company's links with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.

They also demanded an independent investigation into the procurement process by which the sponsorship was given to Dow, describing the whole exercise as a “sham.”