James Wharton, the Conservative candidate for Stockton South, has roundly condemned the sitting Labour MP for the seat, Dari Taylor, after she was the subject of a scathing report by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee this week.
It found that she had misused Commons stationery and publicly-funded first-class pre-paid envelopes by using them to send out hundreds of circular letters for "political purposes", in which she boasted of achievements by the "Labour Government".
And it was not the first time that Ms Taylor has misused pre-paid Commons envelopes in this way.
As such, the committee was forthright in its conclusion:
"We are surprised that an experienced Member has repeated previous breaches of the rules and has failed to act in accordance with advice given by the House authorities. We particularly regret the fact that Ms Taylor has continued to dispute parts of the Commissioner’s findings and we are very disappointed that she has offered no apology. We conclude that Ms Taylor should pay the House authorities the sum of £500 and submit an unequivocal written apology."
James Wharton, who initiated the complaint against Ms Taylor, has been similarly robust in his own response:
“Taxpayers' money has been used to shore up the local Labour Party’s campaigning. This misuse of public funds places a serious question mark over her fitness for office.
“I have never seen a report as strongly worded as this, it is clear that the committee was shocked by the abuse of public money.
“This attempt to subvert democracy, by using public funds to pay for political campaigning, brings the whole democratic process into disrepute."
