A DORSET MP has accused a government department of using taxpayers’ money to “snoop” on him and his fellow MPs.

Christchurch MP Sir Christopher Chope asked why the Cabinet Office, responsible for supporting the prime minister and his government, held some of his records.

Sir Christopher set alarm bells ringing during Cabinet Office questions in the House of Commons on Friday, March 17 as he pressed ministers about what happened to the information collected by the Rapid Response Unit on parliamentarians.

Disbanded last year, the Rapid Response Unit operated to combat misinformation, by monitoring news and information being shared and engaged with online.

Houses of Parliament (Image: PA)

Sir Christopher said: “Why has he [Alex Burghart, Wimborne-born Cabinet Office minister] refused to admit in answer to parliamentary questions that the Rapid Response Unit collected and stored information on sitting MPs.

“And as my subject access request has now confirmed that I was one of those MPs, can he explain why the Rapid Response Unit was using taxpayers’ money to snoop on me, and who authorised this and why?”

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Mr Burghart replied: “I have asked them [officials in the Cabinet Office] this morning, whether there were any monitoring emails that contained his name, I’ve been given assurances that there were not, but I’m very happy for him to come into the department and talk through all the possible implications.

Alex Burghart, MP for Brentwood and Ongar (Image: Parliament)

“The truth is that the government has a number of media monitoring services which check what is going on.

“They monitor not just what MPs and peers say but what journalists say, anything that’s reported in the mainstream media, and as his name has appeared in newspapers stories in connection with various stories, it’s natural that it would be picked up by those monitoring services.”

Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle said he had “concerns” with what was going on.

Mr Burghart reiterated “we have media monitoring units”, adding: “So that when people’s names appear in the media, be they MPs or peers or people who are not members of this House, then they’ll be recorded on those systems.”