LANCASTER MP Hilton Dawson has broken strict parliamentary rules forbidding the use of House of Commons stationery for party political purposes, The Citizen can reveal.

Distinctive House of Commons envelopes are paid for from the public purse to help MPs correspond with constituents.

But in March, up to 300 were used to send out details of a Labour party meeting to local party members.

Recently, Labour MP Siobhan McDonagh had to apologise to the Serjeant at Arms in the House of Commons after sending 200 circulars to residents in her Mitcham and Morden constituency using parliamentary stationery.

And Mr Dawson may well have to make a similar apology in the Commons for using public money for party political ends. The MP's blunder was brought to light by the local Green Party and local member, John Whitelegg, said: "This is clearly a serious breach of House of Commons rules. Stationery and postage should be paid for by the local Labour party -- not the tax-payer. There must be hundreds of people on the Labour membership list and we understand that there have been a number of similar mail-outs in the last year."

He added: "I have written to Hilton Dawson and I am writing to the Serjeant at Arms at the House of Commons. I'm expecting a full apology from Mr Dawson to local tax-payers together with an independently audited account of how much money has been spent in this way during the last three years."

Green group leader, Jon Barry, added: "If local councillors sent their party political minutes out using town hall stamps and envelopes we would rightly be taken to the cleaners. It is completely out of order for the local Labour party to appear to be saving money at the tax-payer's expense. All this money should be paid back immediately."

Hilton Dawson's researcher, Emily Lomax, admitted: "Yes, there's nothing I can say to defend it. These did go out -- it was a mistake. We have a lot of volunteers who help out at the office and something seems to have gone wrong.

"I can't say exactly how many were sent out. I will have to look into it and get back to you."