Did Labour MPs in key marginals use taxpayers cash in race to save their seats?
LABOUR MPs who were desperately fighting to keep their seats at the last election were also the ones who spent the most taxpayers’ money on contacting local voters. MPs are forbidden to claim parliamentary expenses on election campaigns, yet there is a strong link between MPs in the most marginal seats and the amount they spent sending mail to their constituents. Of the top 20 MPs with the biggest postal bill, 19 were Labour and 13 of them were fighting some of the most marginal seats in the country in the May general election. Norman Baker, Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, said that it was illegal for MPs to use parliamentary post for party purposes. “There does seem to be an extraordinarily high degree of correlation between marginal seats and public postage used,” Mr Baker said.
