A bid to make carers exempt from paying hospital car parking charges has been scuppered after Tory MPs, including Christchurch's Chris Chope, talked the bill out of time.

Labour MPs hit out at the ''unfair financial burden'' the charges place on carers as they sought to change the law.

But the progress of a Private Member's Bill brought forward by Julie Cooper, Labour MP for Burnley, which set out the planned exemption, was frustrated by a number of Conservative MPs who made particularly lengthy speeches and talked the Bill out of time.

At the moment hospitals have discretionary powers to grant exemptions to parking charges.

And while Ms Cooper's Bill will now go to the bottom of the pile of Private Member's Bills, Health Minister Alistair Burt said she had brought about a change.

He told the House that the guidance principles sent to hospital trusts by the Government detailing who should be granted concessions or exemptions will now explicitly mention carers.

Introducing her Bill for its second reading, Ms Cooper said the current discretionary system is ''hit and miss''.

''Hospital parking charges place an unfair financial burden on those caring for disabled, seriously ill or older friends and family members,'' she said.

''NHS hospital trusts and foundation trusts are responsible for setting their own charging policies and are not currently required under law to provide any exemptions.

''Some hospitals in England already provide free car parking and others offer some concessions, though these are few and far between and are invariably poorly advertised.''

Ms Cooper's Bill would only apply to England after parking charges were abolished at hospitals in Scotland and Wales in 2008.

Conservative Philip Davies (Shipley) hit out at the Bill in a lengthy speech lasting 93 minutes despite conceding it had a ''worthy sentiment''.

He said: ''This legislation is unnecessary. These are things that can always be done at the local level.''

Mr Burt later said Mr Davies was a ''necessary grit in the oyster to the workings of Parliament''.

Conservative Chris Chope extended the Tory filibuster by more than 30 minutes.

He said: ''It's very difficult to police something like this. If somebody who was entitled to such exemption under the terms of this Bill was to park in the Royal Bournemouth Hospital car park, for example, and then for part of their stay go over to the Crown Court which is within easy walking distance and where there is a similar problem on parking how is that going to be policed?

''It can only be policed by having more personnel, who cost money, doing that policing. Quite often that can create confrontational situations.''

Labour's Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) hit out at the filibustering tactics used by backbench Tories.

She said: ''I'm not often here on Fridays and I am quite intrigued by the way the discussion has gone on.''

It is not the first time Mr Chope has been criticised for blocking or talking out popular bills.

Last year, he blocked the passage of a bill to ban the use of wild animals in circuses, as well as talking out a proposed bill on so-called ‘revenge evictions’, again with Philip Davies.

And in 2010, he talked out another bill that would have banned street pedlars from Bournemouth.