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Senior Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge has breached MPs' Code of Conduct and should apologise to the House of Commons, a parliamentary sleaze watchdog has found.

A report said Dame Margaret used parliamentary facilities to work on a review that slammed Boris Johnson's Garden Bridge 'vanity project' - which squandered up to £22million.

The Commons Committee on Standards said the sums of money involved were "very small" and that the Barking MP said she was not aware she was committing a breach.

But it said the offence was aggravated by the fact that she allowed her parliamentary office to be used as many as 20 times for the review and "did nothing to prevent the impression being given that her work on the review was conducted on behalf of, or in some way connected with, the House of Commons".

Although the work on the review was initially expected to be unpaid, Dame Margaret later accepted payment for it without seeking the advice of Commons authorities, the report found.

(Image: Arup)

The committee, which includes MPs and lay members, said: "We conclude that the appropriate sanction for Dame Margaret's breach of the Code of Conduct is that she should make an apology for this breach on a point of order on the floor of the House."

Dame Margaret said in response to the report: "I am extremely sorry that I inadvertently breached parliamentary rules. I carried out this inquiry in good faith and in the public interest.

"I think all MPs would benefit from greater clarity in the rules governing the use of offices."

The investigation into Dame Margaret was launched in response to a complaint from Conservative London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who said she had received "undue financial benefit" as a result of using her parliamentary office and facilities to conduct the review.

Dame Margaret's review into the controversial proposal for a new bridge over the Thames, published in April 2017, found that the cost of the project was likely to balloon from £60 million to £200 million and it was difficult to justify spending further taxpayers' money on it.

The report prompted Mr Khan to pull the plug on the scheme, which had been supported by his predecessor as mayor Boris Johnson.

After completion of the first draft of the review, the Greater London Assembly decided to pay Dame Margaret £9,500 in recognition of the significant amount of work she had carried out.

An inquiry by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, Kathryn Hudson, found that during her seven-month review Dame Margaret held around 20 meetings in her office in Parliament's Portcullis House, taking evidence from 40 people.

She also wrote around 70 letters about the project, in some cases using House of Commons stationery, and used the parliamentary telephone service.

Ms Hudson concluded that Dame Margaret had committed a "serious breach" of the MPs' Code of Conduct, but found that the Barking MP was "not motivated by financial gain" as she had begun her work with the intention of doing it free of charge.