He says: "If you are getting chest pains, don't be daft. Get them checked out."

Mr Tipping was taken ill at his constituency office in Watnall Road, Hucknall on Saturday June 27.

He spent two days in the Queen's Medical Centre (QMC), Nottingham and then two days at Nottingham City Hospital.

He is now back home and has been 'pottering in his garden' as he convalesces. He will return to work in his Sherwood constituency, which includes Hucknall, as soon as he can and in the meantime his staff are holding the fort.

Mr Tipping has always been regarded as extra-fit because he is a keen walker as a lead member of the Ramblers Association and also runs regularly.

"But I did not listen to my body," he said. "I had been getting stabbing pains in the chest while exercising and put them down to indigestion.

"But then the pains became really severe and I was rushed into the QMC casualty department.

"The care I received at the hospital was fabulous.

"I was in an ambulance with sirens going, then I was met at the door and escorted through. In half an hour, the pains were going and my pulse-rate was down."

After being transferred to the City, Mr Tipping was given an angioplasty, a surgical repair of his arteries.

He said he knew he was at risk because his two younger brothers and his father suffered from heart problems.

He added that his lifestyle as an MP was 'pretty hard.'

Mr Tipping did not think a lot could be read into the heart attack coming at the time of his involvement in the MPs' expenses scandal.

He has paid back more than £14,000 worth of mortgage interest-payments he claimed on expenses for his second home, which is a flat in Lambeth, London.

But he conceded that this had been 'a tough time for politicians' and MPs were looking forward to the forthcoming Parliamentary recess.