SEBASTIAN COE was summoned to Parliament by MPs yesterday for a grilling, after he claimed that media investigations into widespread doping in athletics were a “declaration of war” on the sport.

Lord Coe, the new International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president, was told to attend the next culture, media and sport select committee hearing into allegations that hundreds of athletes had suspicious blood results which were not followed up by the governing body.

It comes after Paula Radcliffe on Tuesday emphatically denied cheating after saying she had been effectively implicated during the committee’s session looking at blood doping in the sport.

Committee member and Tory MP for Folkestone and Hythe Damian Collins said: “The plan will be to hold another session in the next couple of months and to have Sebastian Coe there.

“I think the ‘declaration of war’ remark was inappropriate.

The UK Anti-Doping president suggested it was because he was standing for the IAAF presidency — what we want to understand is what he actually thinks now he is president of the IAAF.”