McNulty sorry over expenses blunder

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In a statement to the Commons, Mr McNulty said he accepted the ruling of the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee which found he had effectively been "subsidising" his parents from public funds.

In a report to the committee, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon found that Mr McNulty was entitled to claim on the house in his Harrow constituency, even though it was only nine miles from his main home.

However, he said the former employment and home office minister had overclaimed in relation to the time he spent there in connection with his parliamentary duties.

As a result, Mr McNulty and his parents, who were living rent-free at the property, had "obtained a benefit from parliamentary funds to which he was not entitled".

In his statement to MPs, Mr McNulty said he had followed the guidance given by the Commons Fees Office but accepted Mr Lyon was entitled to take a different view of the rules and to impose it retrospectively.

"I should have been much clearer about my arrangements and taken steps to ensure that I was not open to any charge of benefit and should have had much more concern for how these rules were perceived by the public, rather than just following them," he said. "I apologise for any part I have played in the diminution of the standing of this House in the eyes of the public. It is, however, time to move on. I apologise to the House once again without reservation."

Mr McNulty became one of the most high-profile casualties of the MPs' expenses scandal when he resigned as employment minister last June in Gordon Brown's Government reshuffle. He has already repaid £3,000 which he mistakenly claimed in council tax and mortgage interest payments.

Mr McNulty rejected suggestions he had "got away with it" and should have been punished more severely. "I think I came out of this with some exoneration, but equally with some degree of being bruised and battered," he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Asked in Brussels if it was right that Mr McNulty should stand again at the general election, Mr Brown said the committee had "chosen to ask him to pay back his money and apologise to the House of Commons and that is what he's done."