A BLOGGER has apologised to Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell for falsely claiming he was misusing public money and failing to declare political donations.

Mr Barwell had threatened to take legal action against the author of political blog Inside Croydon during a public spat on Twitter last weekend.

In an article entitled 'Gavin Barwell's website, payments and councillors on his staff', the anonymous blog had accused Mr Barwell of "channelling public money" to Councillor Tim Pollard to run his website.

It was also claimed the Conservative MPs election campaign had received donations from Lord Ashcroft, the party's former deputy chairman.

This provoked an angry response from Mr Barwell, who posted on Twitter: "This contains further false allegations.

"You going to retract or is it time to involve the lawyers."

Inside Croydon editor Steven Downes agreed to print an apology which stated that "elements of the article were unclear".

Mr Barwell told the Advertiser: "You have to have a fairly thick skin in my line of work but there's a difference when someone accuses you of breaking the law."