MP repays cash in row over taxpayer-funded leaflets

A YORKSHIRE MP has been forced to repay money after a complaint that taxpayer-funded leaflets targeted people in another constituency whose election votes she is chasing.

Commons authorities were alerted after claims Wakefield MP Mary Creagh's leaflets were distributed to homes currently outside her constituency – but which will become part of it at the General Election because of changes to voting boundaries.

Opponents claimed by using controversial Commons allowances on the leaflets, rules had been flouted and the taxpayer was effectively helping fund her election campaign.

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Last night a spokesman for the MP, whose marginal seat is a target for the Tories, admitted she had repaid 66 and blamed an "administrative error".

She is the latest MP to fall foul of rules on the controversial Communications Allowance, which gives MPs up to 10,000 a year to keep constituents informed about their work but has strict requirements the money is not used for party political purposes. The Tories have pledged to scrap it if elected.

The Tory prospective Parliamentary candidate for Wakefield, Alex Story, said: "For three years now I have been campaigning in Wakefield andall ofthe costs have been raised by me and my team from supporters and well-wishers.

"It is bad enough that I have to contribute my taxes to Mrs Creagh's campaign without her misusingthem to try and gain still more of an unfair advantage."