Local Labour politicians have criticised Crewe and Nantwich Conservative MP Kieran Mullan for receiving £41,000 in donations in three years.
They claim it shows wealthy donors have “far more influence and access to decision makers” than his constituents.
But MP Dr Mullan hit back, claiming it was the “usual party politics” from Labour and that he did not benefit from any of the donations.
The largest donor to the MP is Barbara Yerelomeu, a former Tory councillor from West Ealing, who co-founded a volunteering charity with Dr Mullan before he entered parliament.
She sits on the advisory board of the “Free Market Forum”, which in June called on the government to lift the moratorium on fracking.
Dr Mullan also received £12,000 from JC Bamford (JCB), £5,000 from Nicolas Bacon, £3,500 from The United and Cecil Club and £3,000 in donations from “Betcaton Ltd”.
The United and Cecil Club has previously been accused of taking advantage of a loophole in political fundraising laws to donate large sums to the Conservatives without declaring them.
Cllr Sally Handley, chair of Crewe and Nantwich Constituency Labour Party, said: “It is vital for the health of our democracy that donations to our politicians are as transparent as possible and that we know on what terms these payments are being made.
“One thing is for certain, nobody gives their money to a politician without expecting something in return, and we need to know what that is.
“Wealthy donors have far more influence and access to decision makers than the vast majority of Kieran Mullan’s constituents, and that cannot be right.
“We need to be confident that all of our representatives are acting in the interests of working people, not simply those with the deepest pockets.”
But a spokesperson for Dr Mullan today hit back, saying: “Kieran is focused on delivering Crewe’s Town Deal, getting a new hospital at Leighton and helping thousands of individual constituents – which he does day in day out.
“We are surprised Crewe & Nantwich Labour party want to talk about a report that found Labour MPs Wes Streeting, Yvette Cooper and Dan Jarvis were given £345,000 by a company called MPM Connect Ltd that doesn’t seem to have staff or a website and is registered at an office where the secretary says she has never heard of them and whose company’s accounts do not disclose where it receives its funding, what it does or why it donates so heavily.
“Has Crewe & Nantwich Labour Party been in touch to ask Wes, Yvette and Dan about this?
“We assume not because it’s just the usual party politics from the local Labour party.
“We can confirm that none of the funding Kieran received benefited Kieran personally or came with any expectations.
“It is used to fund leaflets, surveys, email newsletters, Facebook ads and other tools Kieran uses to get his message out.
“We think its important for democracy that people know what their MP has done, wants to do and believes in. Other countries make the taxpayer pay and we don’t think that is fair.”
I agree, i approached him on many occasion over the last few years only to be ignored. Perhaps i should have paid him or are we supposed to call it donating to get anything from him?
We have an MP who’s main goal is to stay a MP and doesn’t actually think of Crewe when he votes and refuses to engage in open debate with the real people of Crewe
If the money came with no strings attached then what’s the point. He must think the people in his constituency came down with the last shower