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Newcastle MP Paul Farrelly broke parliamentary rules by sending a ‘party political’ letter on House of Commons notepaper ahead of last year’s General Election.

The Labour MP sent the ‘dissolution letter’ to around 1,000 constituents he had previously been in correspondence with last April, shortly before Parliament was dissolved.

Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has now ruled that the letter breached the members’ code of conduct, following a complaint from a constituent.

Mr Farrelly, who retained his seat in the election by just 30 votes, says he had sent similar letters in previous years and had never received a complaint.

But he has now accepted Ms Stone’s ruling, apologised and paid back the £750.46 cost of the House of Commons stationery.

In his letter, Mr Farrelly said he was going to ‘stand and fight’ to retain his seat in the election. He also told constituents that he did not want ‘more scorched earth for our local NHS, not the budget cuts now planned for all our schools’.

Newcastle constituent Chris Tomkinson, who received the letter, lodged a formal complaint with the commissioner in November. Mr Tomkinson claimed the letter included four paragraphs of ‘blatant electioneering’.

Mr Farrelly defended his actions saying that he was merely stating his position on important issues, and that he had not asked for the support of those who received the letter.

But Ms Stone, after receiving advice from the Commons’s director of accommodation and logistics, upheld Mr Tomkinson’s complaint.

She said: “It is clear from the director’s letter of that she would have cautioned you against using House-provided stationery had you sought her advice before sending this letter.

“Having considered her advice and your comments on it carefully, I agree with the director that it was a contravention of the rule against using House-provided resources in connection with work for or at the behest of a political party.

“It was not appropriate to use parliamentary resources (stationery and postage) to provide your contact details as a candidate during the forthcoming election in a letter which also expressed your views on a range of issues, at least some of which were likely to be topics on which you would be campaigning during the election period.”

Ms Stone proposed to deal with the breach of the code through a ‘rectification’ procedure, involving an apology and the repayment of the cost of the stationery and postage.

Mr Farrelly, while questioning the reasons for the complaint, accepted this resolution.

He said: “I had a complaint before Christmas about a letter I’d sent out, as usual, saying how people could get in touch with me during the election, and giving my views on the biggest issues of the day.

“This is the first time such a complaint has been made about me in nearly 17 years as an MP. The Standards Commissioner upheld the complaint, and just to move on I agreed to her resolution.

“We usually get some guidance on this but that didn’t happen this time because it was a snap election. I think there are some grey areas in the rules, but having had this complaint I will be mindful of this issue next time.”

The election in Newcastle, which was one of closest contests in the country last year, was marred by missing postal ballots and registration problems, resulting in hundreds of people being denied a vote.