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Tory MP ordered to repay £1,945 Tory MP ordered to repay £1,945
(41 minutes later)
Conservative MP David Tredinnick has been forced to repay £1,945 by the Commons standards watchdog.Conservative MP David Tredinnick has been forced to repay £1,945 by the Commons standards watchdog.
The MP used pictures of himself with party leader David Cameron and local Tory politicians in a newsletter, in the run up to June's local elections.The MP used pictures of himself with party leader David Cameron and local Tory politicians in a newsletter, in the run up to June's local elections.
The standards and privileges committee ruled the Bosworth MP had used his communications allowance for party political purposes. The standards and privileges committee ruled the Bosworth MP had used his Parliamentary communications allowance for party political purposes.
Mr Tredinnick has accepted the committee's ruling and apologised.Mr Tredinnick has accepted the committee's ruling and apologised.
The MP's four-page Westminster Report newsletter, which under the rules should have been restricted to informing constituents about his work in Parliament, included pictures of local Tory politicians who were standing for re-election.
Mr Tredinnick said the rules in force at the time his newsletter was produced did not make specific reference to the use of photographs.
He also said the complaint against him was made by a political opponent - the candidate selected by the Liberal Democrats to fight his seat at the next election.
But the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon said that "given the centrality of the photographs and the high preponderance of identified Conservative elected politicians throughout the publication… the overall effect was to tip the whole document into a publication which promoted the interests of Mr Tredinnick's political party".
The Standards and Privileges Committee, which decides on punishment for MPs judged to have broken the rules, said: "We accept that this use of photographs was on such a scale as to taint the whole newsletter, although apart from the captions the written content of the newsletter was within the rules."
The committee said it had also been "unwise" for Mr Treddinick to include in the newsletter a photograph of himself with his party leader.
It said: "Although the Commissioner has not commented on this photograph in his conclusions, we are of the view that a photograph of a Member with his or her party leader has, unavoidably, a party political context, which in many cases is likely to render it inappropriate for use in a publication which is funded by Parliament."
The Committee ordered Mr Tredinnick to repay half the cost of printing and distributing the newsletter.