REDCAR MP Vera Baird tried to pass the bill for her Christmas tree and baubles onto the taxpayer, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Mrs Baird, the solicitor general and Redcar MP since 2001, submitted a claim for 286 miscellaneous items.

House of Commons officials are said to have spotted the receipts were for festive decorations and rejected the claim.

A £4,570 bill for furniture was also scaled back because the items were deemed to be too luxurious.

The receipts for Christmas decorations show that Mrs Baird spent £29.97 in December 2006 at her local branch of Woolworths on 24 baubles, 20 snowflake lights and an extension lead.

At another shop, she is said to have spent £5.98 on decorations, and, at another, £214.97 on two artificial Christmas trees.

Mrs Baird said: "I used my allowances claim to furnish and maintain my house.

"I did not take issue with the fees office for rejecting claims, I was grateful for their guidance on how the rules should be interpreted.

"I still have these decorations which of course I had paid for myself and I used them last Christmas as well."

She has described the Telegraph's article as "unfair" and written a letter to the editor.

Mrs Baird told The Northern Echo: "The Telegraph is trying to smear every member of the Government, of which I am one.

"The general allegation is that people have got public money they should not have had.

"But they are stretching it a bit, because the allegation against me is that I did not get that public money."

Mrs Baird said that only "two or three out of hundreds" of claims she had submitted had been refused by the fees office.

In her letter to the Telegraph, she wrote: "There should be no discredit in having a claim rejected.

"Determining the boundaries of claims is exactly what the fees office is for."