MP FOR Redditch Rachel Maclean has apologised for breaching House of Commons rules by using her official Parliamentary email address for party political campaigning purposes.
The complaint arose following a member of the Redditch community receiving an email on May 4, the day of the local elections, asking people to vote Conservative.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards called on Mrs Maclean to apologise for using her official Parliamentary email.
Rachel Maclean MP said: “I immediately accepted a minor administrative error had been made and I apologised to the Commissioner.
“This error hasn’t happened before, and it won’t happen again as new processes have been put in place to ensure it can’t.”
A Redditch Labour spokesperson said: “We don’t know what effect these rules breaches had on the outcome of the elections, but this is once again a typical case of Redditch Conservatives thinking that the rules don’t apply to them.
“Standards are clearly written down on what is acceptable practice in election campaigns and, unfortunately, to challenge the effect of the Conservative breaches of the rules would be an expensive exercise.
“This election rule breaking brings the local Conservative Party into disrepute.
“We hope that, in future, the local Conservatives will train their agents and staff to abide by the rules so that they don’t hold an advantage over other parties with their voter appeal exercises.”
