North West Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen has been reported to the Parliamentary Standards Commission for using taxpayers money to compile dossiers on political opponents.
Mr Bridgen has said that he is using Parliamentary staff to compile a dossier on Leicester East MP Keith Vaz. The use of Parliamentary staff for party political purposes is forbidden under the rules. Staff can only be used for Parliamentary duties. In the last five years Mr Bridgen has claimed £500,000 of taxpayers' money for staffing purposes. He currently employs two full time staff one on the highest pay scale.
Paragraph 15 of the Rules states that taxpayers money should be used ‘In support of their parliamentary duties. It should not confer any undue personal or financial benefit on themselves or anyone else, or confer undue advantage on a political organisation."
Paragraph 16 of the Rules state: "Members shall never undertake any action which would cause significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the House of Commons as a whole, or of its Members generally."
Last year Mr Bridgen was found to have breached Parliamentary Rules in failing to declare to Parliament that he received £1.9million in taxpayers money for his home.
Councillor John Thomas said: ‘"Andrew Bridgen is clearly in breach of the rules of Parliament. I have reported him for misusing his Parliamentary allowances. He has admitted to having his staff compile a dossier regarding another member which clearly constitutes a gross misuse of taxpayer money. Knowing his history there may be other examples of this. He has serious questions to answer. We do not pay allowances to our MPs so they can spy on each other. Mr Bridgen would be better placed focusing on his own constituency and perhaps explaining to constituents how he pocketed £1.9 million of taxpayer’s money for a railway that won’t even run past his house. If Westminster is a political village, then Andrew Bridgen is the village idiot."
