MP Tony Baldry has been re-selected to fight the next General Election after being cleared at the 11th hour over an undeclared £5,000 loan.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Elizabeth Filkin, told the Bicester and Banbury MP just hours before his re-selection meeting that he had done nothing wrong.

Mr Baldry was accused in the Sunday Telegraph of not declaring the loan he received from a City solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla, in the register of members' interests or referring it to civil servants at the time.

In her reply, Miss Filkin said because of the nature of the loan and the amount of interest that was paid on it, £125, registration was not required. Mr Baldry received the reply shortly before a meeting of the North Oxfordshire Conservative Association in Banbury yesterday. He explained the outcome of the inquiry to about 50 party members who attended the re-selection meeting, and following a secret ballot, Mr Baldry was re-appointed.

Norman Clare, life vice-president of the association, said: "I am happy that this matter has been resolved in a speedy and satisfactory manner. We certainly did not want a scandal hanging over our heads and now that Mr Baldry has been re-selected we can look forward to the next General Election."

Mr Baldry, 49, who intended to withdraw from proceedings in the House of Commons until the matter was resolved, will now carry on his parliamentary business as normal.

He was unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.

Story date: Wednesday 08 December

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.