A frontbench Labour MP has been accused of using taxpayers' money to silence his Jewish Parliamentary assistant after she accused him of religious discrimination.

Khalid Mahmood, the shadow minister for Europe, was taken to an employment tribunal by Elaina Cohen, his long-serving parliamentary assistant and former partner.

Mr Mahmood’s £40,000-worth of legal and staffing costs during the case, which was settled out of court with a non-disclosure agreement, were paid for by the parliamentary expenses system.

Official records show Mr Mahmood claimed £900 expenses for "lawyers’ fees", and £1,500 in "legal costs".

During the tribunal, he was also granted nearly £37,000 from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) to pay staff covering for Ms Cohen.

Claims of religious discrimination first surfaced when Mr Mahmood disciplined Ms Cohen after she called another Labour MP, Naz Shah, an "anti-Zionist" in a tweet in 2016.

Mr Mahmood suspended her and began an internal disciplinary process against her. Meanwhile, Naz Shah was suspended by Labour for antisemitic Facebook posts, for which she has subsequently apologised.

Although bound by a gagging order and unable to discuss details of her case, Ms Cohen, 60, told The Telegraph: "I complained to Ipsa several times on the unfairness of substantial public funds being used. Ipsa should not be funding MPs in actions against their members of staff.”

"We're in the middle of an antisemitism storm and I had two years of hell over two tweets trying to bring it to the party's attention."

Mr Mahmood said: "There was an agreement that was signed which forbids me to go into any details in relation to [the case]."

Sir Alistair Graham, the former chairman of the committee on standards in public life, said: "If public money is involved, there should not be secret deals like non-disclosure agreements used to resolve staff issues. This is about transparency."

The Telegraph reports that official records show Mr Mahmood spent £37,000 of taxpayers' money on staff to cover for Ms Cohen during the tribunal, and used insurance purchased on his expenses to fund his legal costs and a settlement for Ms Cohen.

Ms Cohen is said to have returned to work in the summer of 2016 – but claimed she had been effectively replaced in her role.

She launched her religious discrimination claim, which was settled out of court, in 2017.

Mr Mahmood’s legal costs for the employment case, including the settlement, are covered by employment practices liability insurance, paid for by Ipsa, the MPs' expenses watchdog, at £570 a year.

Mr Mahmood said Ipsa was “fully aware” the uplift was to deal with the fall-out from the discrimination case and all the money was used to consecutively hire two part-time workers to cover Ms Cohen’s duties. 

Full-time Parliamentary assistant jobs are capped at £31,000 but Mr Mahmood spent nearly £37,000 on the part-time cover - including an £8,016 overspend.

Sir Alistair said: "Both the public and Mr Mahmood's constituents should be able to see how he has come to spend so much public money."

A spokesman for Ipsa said: “MPs may apply for a contingency payment for costs which are not covered by the [MPs’ expenses] scheme or where they expect to exceed a particular budget.

“Applications are considered by the Contingency Panel who assess whether there are exceptional circumstances warranting extra support.”

Ipsa would not say whether it had taken any action against Mr Mahmood for his nine-month delay in repaying his £8,016 overspend. The money should have been repaid within 30 days.

The MP said he is now planning to question Ipsa on the figures. The watchdog said it was confident they are correct.

Mr Mahmood told The Telegraph: “This is not an expense which is unwarranted. Part of the problem with this is it puts all the burden on members of Parliament, without having any real support to deal with this sort of situation, when such an issue arises with staff in offices.”

The MP, 57, was previously criticised for claiming nine nights at a luxury hotel in Kensington costing £1,350 in 2009, during his relationship with Ms Cohen.