David Borrow MP - Blowing your money on coffee mornings.

More spending of other peoples money by champagne socialist MP's in New Labour.A Lancashire MP defended spending more than £19,000 on leaflets and letters to communicate with his constituents. David Borrow, the Labour MP for South Ribble, said the Communications Allowance allowed him to invite constituents to coffee mornings and update them on his life in Parliament.

Mr Borrow, who has only a 2,184 majority, claimed £19,006 from the Communications Allowance in 2007/08 – the fifth highest claim out of Westminster's 645 MPs. The Communications Allowance can be used to reclaim money for constituency newsletters, surveys, petitions, direct mailing and personal websites.

The limit is £10,000, but MPs can transfer unused funds from other allowances, such as staffing or office allowances. Mr Borrow said he spent his allowance on inviting constituents to coffee mornings and public meetings. He also posts a newsletter entitled The Parliamentary Report to every constituent once a year and has had business cards printed.

Mr Borrow has held 10 coffee mornings since Christmas. He posts invites to between 1,500 and 2,000 people for each of the events. He also used the allowance to invite constituents to two public meetings held in New Longton and Banks to discuss flooding.

He said: "Since the Cost Allowance has come in I have been able to write to these constituents and invite them in for a chat to raise any issues with me." He said he was able to top up his Communications Allowance because he had under-spent on staffing.

Mr Borrow is also currently using the allowance to launch a website.

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