A Labour MP has called his opposition’s claims he broke Government rules “total trivia” after he was accused of sending out Commons headed campaign letters to residents in a neighbouring borough.

MP for Shepherd’s Bush Andrew Slaughter said Hammersmith MP Greg Hands had “got it wrong” when he made the complaint in the House of Commons and said there were “much more pressing matters to attend to.”

The practice is banned under parliamentary guidelines as it could mislead residents about the identity of their local MP, but Mr Slaughter says that is not what happened in this case.

“The claim is totally inaccurate. I never used House of Commons stationary and the letter I wrote clearly stated it was not funded by public money. There are much more pressing issues to attend to than a pathetic tryst over campaign letters.”

An extract from the letter written by Mr Slaughter said: “My first duty as an MP is to you. As a lifelong resident and elected representative here for 25 years I feel this issue is so important that I need the freedom to continue campaiging against Heathrow.”

But Tory MP Mr Hands said: “It is absolutely wrong. The tone of the letter implies he is the MP to my constituents. If we ignore this behaviour we effectively give it the green light and given the massive boundary changes coming up, we are opening ourselves up to MPs abusing public money and the use of the House of Comons logo.”

The contested area currently falls into the Tory seat of Hammersmith and Fulham and is bordered by the Labour seat of Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush.

In the next election, part of the Hammersmith and Fulham constituency will become Chelsea and Fulham, where Mr Hands is expected to retain his seat.

The remaining part will be added to Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush to create the Hammersmith seat.

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