Parliamentary Commissioner says public funds used for party political activity by Anthony Steen M.P.

The House of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges today issued its report on a complaint from a member of the public that Anthony Steen M.P. had used public funds for the purposes of party political activity in his paper, Westmister Report' distributed throughout his Totnes Constituency.

The Commissioner, Sir Philip Mawyer, upheld the complaint and found that comments made in the paper fell foul of the of the prohibition on party political activity or campaigning in publications funded by public funds. Mr. Steen was in breach of the the provision of the code requiring members to use their allowances properly and strictly to observe the administrative rules relating to them.

Commenting on the decision, Mike Treleaven, Totnes Constituency Liberal Democrat Prospective Parliamentary Candidate said:

'Parliamentary allowances are public funds and it is right and proper that they should be used in the in the way laid down by the code of conduct. Mr. Steen has clearly breached the rules and used a paper distributed throughout the constituency and partly paid for out of the public purse, for political purposes'

He continued:

' Mr. Steen receives a considerable amount of money in the form of allowances and I hope he will ensure that these funds will, in future, be used for the purposes for which they are intended'

For a copy of the full report, please download it from the 'Download Area' on the Navigation bar on the left.