A Tory MP used House of Commons notepaper and taxpayer funded pre-paid envelopes to send out invitations to his birthday party.
The headed paper and postage paid envelopes are provided by the taxpayer for MPs to correspond with constituents.
Romford MP Andrew Rosindell printed colourful invitations, complete with flags and drawings of clovers, on the exclusive stationery, and posted them to “friends, family and supporters”.
The invitations read: “Andrew Rosindell MP requests the pleasure of your company for his birthday party along with the annual celebration of St Patrick’s Day.”
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It also noted that a toast would be raised to Mr Rosindell’s late mother at the event.
MPs are allowed to use up to £9,000 worth of Parliamentary stationery and postage a year to carry out their duties.
Parliamentary Standards guidelines say: "The rules cannot be expected to cover every eventuality; Members should therefore always behave with probity and integrity when using House-provided stationery and postage."
While the rules do not specifically ban the use of House stationery to invite friends and family to a party, they do specify that it should not be used to send birthday or greetings cards.
They also state "Modest use of stationery (but not pre-paid envelopes) for personal correspondence is permitted."
The party took place on Saturday March 16 at Margaret Thatcher House, his constituency office.
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The following day, Mr Rosindell tweeted: “Thank you to all my friends, family and supporters for their wonderful birthday wishes today and to all those who came to my birthday party at Margaret Thatcher House yesterday.
“The tributes to my lovely Mum were so comforting.
“A Happy St. Patrick’s Day to one and all!”
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A spokesman for Mr Rosindell said: “This was a constituency based event which was held around Andrew’s birthday weekend, attended by community organisations and members of the public from Romford.
“It was a non-political occasion and raised money for the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) charity which has an Animal Hospital based in Romford.
“Andrew is pleased to have raised thousands of pounds for such a worthy cause such as the PDSA who do wonderful work for sick animals across the UK.”
