MP Curry sorry for £28,000 home claim

The Skipton and Ripon MP has written a letter of apology

after Westminster's sleaze watchdog found he had breached the rules.

He was ordered to repay the money by the Standards and Privileges Committee, which he used to chair until standing down when the allegations over his expenses first broke.

In his letter, which the committee has now published, Mr Curry said: "I accept the verdict of the committee and apologise unreservedly for the errors I have made.

"I am grateful to the committee for setting out very clearly that there was no intention on my part to conceal, deceive or derive personal benefit from any of my actions."

Mr Curry stepped down after allegations he claimed thousands of pounds in expenses on his Yorkshire home despite his wife having barred him from using it after he had an affair.

He admitted the affair but said he had not been banned from the cottage in North Yorkshire and continued to use it to carry out his parliamentary duties.

When Parliament's standards commissioner John Lyon began investigating – after the MP referred the case himself – Mr Curry estimated he had stayed in the cottage on only six nights over four years, although he insisted he had used it more often during the day for constituency work.