Tory MP pulls the wool over her constituents' eyes

Nadine Dorries made the startling admission to investigators during a sleaze probe that cleared her of abusing the Commons expenses system but found she had "misled" voters.

The Mid Bedfordshire MP had been accused of wrongly declaring her constituency property as her second home, even though she spent most of her time there.

The arrangement meant she was entitled to allowances worth some 24,000 a year to fund the property. However, Standards Commissioner John Lyon concluded that the MP had not breached the rules because she was actually spending the majority of her time in the Cotswolds.

Ms Dorries told the probe the Bedfordshire property was merely used "as a means of maintaining a base in my constituency in order to assist with my duties as an MP".

Mr Lyon challenged her over posts on her blog that seemed to indicate she was spending more time in Bedfordshire than she really was.

One, from May 15, 2009, informed readers her daughter was going to school there.

According to documents published by the Standards and Privileges Committee, Ms Dorries responded: "My blog is 70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent fact. It is written as a tool to enable my constituents to know me better and to reassure them of my commitment to Mid Bedfordshire.

"I rely heavily on poetic licence and frequently replace one place name/event/fact with another."

Ms Dorries suggested she had been subjected to "bullying" by the media after the expenses scandal broke.

"In the light of the bullying onslaught of the Daily Telegraph I used my blog to its best effect in reassuring my constituents of my commitment to Mid Beds," she wrote.

"My commitment is absolute and is always my first consideration regardless of where I sleep at night.

"However, I have always been aware that should my personal domestic arrangements become the knowledge of my political opponents, they would be able to exaggerate that to good effect. Hence the reason for my blog and my need to reassure my constituents."

Mr Lyon's report criticised Ms Dorries's blog, saying it "gave information to its readers, including Ms Dorries's constituents and party supporters, which provided a misleading impression of her arrangements as a Member of Parliament for the constituency".