Labour MPs have channelled £235,000 of taxpayers’ money to a computing consultancy that operates from the party’s headquarters, The Times has learnt.
An analysis of MPs’ expenses published yesterday shows that Alistair Darling, Yvette Cooper and her husband Ed Balls are among a number of ministers who have used their Commons allowances to pay Computing for Labour (CfL) to manage communications in their constituency offices over the past four years.
The company, which is run by party activists, also helps candidates to campaign during elections by reportedly designing websites and sending e-mails and computer-generated text messages to voters.
The Times has also discovered that MPs have spent tens of thousands of pounds of their communications allowances on two other organisations with close Labour links. They