Press reform group Hacked Off has accused an MP of attempting to smear it by asking whether it has received any direct funding from Max Mosley.

Anne Main MP wrote to Hacked Off executive director Evan Harris after the Daily Mail uncovered a “racist” by-election leaflet from 1961 bearing Mosley’s name as publisher.

Mosley has said he does not recognise the leaflet, saying it is “offensive and divisive” and “not something I would have ever wished to be associated with”.