THE extent to which the region’s MPs are bankrolled by trade unions and wealthy private donors is revealed today by The Northern Echo.

The Echo examined declarations of financial interests by 17 MPs for 2016/17 and found newly-elected North West Durham Labour MP Laura Pidcock registered a £25,000 donation from Unite days after her maiden House of Commons speech, the highest single donation paid to any MP in the region.

Tory Simon Clarke, who took the hotly-contested Middlesbrough South and east Cleveland seat in June’s General Election, received £5,000 and £2,000 donations respectively from multi-millionaires Jeremy J Hosking, a pro-Brexit supporter, and the former boss of Dixons, Lord Stanley Kalms.

Neither MP responded to requests for a comment.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair also gave £4,000 towards his successor Phil Wilson’s election campaign in Sedgefield.

Mr Wilson said he has known Mr Blair for 30 years and he had offered the donation as it was his old seat.

Meanwhile, Labour MPs Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) and Grahame Morris (Easington) declared £345 a night hotel stays, paid for by Unite, during the party’s Brighton conference in September.

The MPs are understood to have stayed at the four star Brighton Hilton Metropole.

Mr Morris said it was a fact of life hotels inflated their prices during conference season and, as chair of a number of Parliamentary groups, he was “not on holiday”.

The MP, who received £12,000 and £4,000 donations from Unite and the RMT rail union respectively, added: “I don’t see any of these donations, it doesn’t go into my pocket, it goes to the party and pays for election materials and campaigning and such like.

“There is a world of difference between trade union donations paid for by ten pences from ordinary working people and individual corporate donations.”

A minority of MPs also declared second jobs. Conservative Kevin Hollinrake, who represents Thirsk and Malton in North Yorkshire, received a £50,000 salary for eight days work as non-executive chairman of Hunters Property plc, a company he set up 25 years ago.

He said: “I work 99 per cent of my time as a member of Parliament and very little within Hunters, but nevertheless I still hold that position.

“It is absolutely critical that MPs are accountable to the public and it is perfectly reasonable that people are entitled to ask questions about the monies we receive and what we do with our time.”

Labour’s Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) declared just under £9,000 worth of payments from his work as a GP, while Conservative Robert Goodwill (Scarborough and Whitby) registered an income from a commercial ship leased to an operator and said he was an unpaid managing director of a cemetery company.

Others declared properties belonging to them, several in some instances, and fact-finding trips abroad to locations such as Jerusalem and the West Bank, Qatar and Tanzania.

MPs are required to “fulfil conscientiously” the requirements of the House of Commons in respect of the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, a Parliamentary record which is refreshed every year. This is incorporated into a Code of Conduct they have to abide by.

They must also be open and frank in drawing attention to any relevant interest in any proceeding of the House or its committees, and in any communications with ministers, members, public officials or public office holders.

Individual donations are listed under the section ‘Support linked to an MP, but received by a local party organisation or indirectly via a central party organisation’.

Union donations came from Aslef, the Community Union, CWU, the GMB, the RMT, Unite, Unison, USDAW.

A spokesman for the biggest donor, Unite, said: “Trade unions founded the Labour Party to give a voice to working people in Parliament, so it is no surprise that in the last election Unite supported prospective Labour MPs to be a strong voice for people and communities in the region.”

Referring to Mr McDonald and Mr Morris’s hotel stay, the spokesman added: “It is not unusual for MPs to participate in Unite events or hold meetings with Unite members at Labour party conference and therefore require accommodation.

“Unite negotiates and books room well in advance to secure the best price possible.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said in a statement: "All donations to the Conservative party are properly and transparently declared to the Electoral Commission, published by them, and comply fully with the law.”