GILLINGHAM MP Paul Clark is to go to the High Court to ask for forgiveness after overspending his election campaign allowance, it has been revealed. The judge will then have the power to give Mr Clark relief for the mistake or remove him from Parliament and order a by-election in the constituency.

But it is unlikely Mr Clark will lose his seat as, according to the Labour Party, the overspend happened because of wrong information supplied by Medway Council. All political parties fighting for the Gillingham seat in the June general election were given a maximum of £8,744 to spend on promoting their campaign.

But Mr Clark and his team spent £9,562 - breaking the limit by £818 - after receiving the wrong information from the council.

The Labour team spend on election posters, stickers, leaflets and a political video helped secure a 2,272 majority for Mr Clark on June 7 this year.

The error occurred after the council wrote to Mr Clark's agent in May informing them Gillingham was a county seat - with a higher spending limit - when it is a borough seat.

Mr Clark said: "It is extremely unfortunate that owing to us having received wrong information on our spending limits we are in this position. When I was first told of this I felt surprised and shocked. I hope that the High Court will recognise we were not to blame for this mistake.

"It was Medway Council which provided us with the high figure," he added. His agent Linda Clark stressed that neither she nor Mr Clark had made the mistake deliberately.

She said: "We are very upset, particularly as I was so careful to do the right thing. As a volunteer first-time agent, I was relying on the advice given to me and am very distressed at the position in which this places myself and our MP through no fault of ours."

The Conservative candidate for the Gillingham seat in June, Tim Butcher, was Mr Clark's closest challenger with 39 per cent share of the vote. After learning of the spending error, Mr Butcher said: "An overspend of the election limit is a matter for the courts, but I would regard it as a very serious matter."

Jonathan Hunt, the Liberal Democrat candidate, said he was not surprised the Labour Party had gone over budget. He said: "We thought at the time that Labour was spending an awful lot of money and we suffered as a result."

Mr Clark's application to the High Court is on November 27. A council spokesman said: "Under election law, the responsibility for not exceeding spending limits lies with the parliamentary candidate and their agent. However, the council' chief executive, as acting returning officer, fully accepts that Mr Clark was sent information based on spending limits for county constituencies when Gillingham is a borough constituency."