Two MPs, two complaints upheld: Richard Benyon and Bridget Prentice

As blogged about previously (here, here and here), Conservative MP for Newbury Richard Benyon looked to have broken the rules over Parliamentary funds with his website, using Parliamentary money for party-political work. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has now written back to the constituent who lodged a complaint, saying that Richard Benyon:

has accepted that the content of the articles identified was in breach of the rules of the House in respect of the Communications Allowance … Mr Benyon has, therefore, apologised for his breach of the rules of the House and he has taken effective action to bring his website within the rules for funding from the Communications Allowance. He has, therefore, rectified the matter and I now regard the matter as closed.

Turning to Bridget Prentice, the Labour MP for Lewisham East, I previously highlighted how she too looked to be misusing Parliamentary funds, in her case by using them to campaign outside her constituency. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has decided the rules were indeed broken:

It was a breach of the rules of the House for Mrs Prentice to use the Communications Allowance in order to communicate with constituents outside her current constituency boundary … [Bridget Prentice] has offered to repay the costs of those reports.

Amusingly (and good news for the Liberal Democrat hoping to unseat her at the next general election), the complaint has also revealed that so few people wanted to hear from her that she scrapped plans to set up a supporters network:

I have considered also the form on the final page of Mrs Prentice’s report which included an invitation to join her Supporters Network  … In the event the returns were such that Mrs Prentice decided that there was little appetite in Lewisham East for such a network.