MP made to repay £28,000 over Yorkshire home he hardly used

Tory MP David Curry received allowances for the property in Yorkshire despite spending the night there only "very rarely" between 2005 and 2009, an investigation found.

The Standards and Privileges Committee also concluded that he had breached rules by failing to change the designations of homes during a period when he had separated from his wife in 2004.

Mr Curry, who stepped down as chairman of the committee last November after criticism of his expenses, has been told to make a written apology to the House as well as repaying the money.

Standards Commissioner John Lyon rejected Mr Curry's argument that he often used the house in Yorkshire as a daytime base to carry out work in his constituency - one of the largest in the country.

He described the breach as "serious", and suggested that the MP should repay all the expenses he claimed for the property between July 2005 and March 2009 - some 38,000.

The cross-party committee reduced the sum, insisting Mr Curry had not been trying to profit from the arrangement.

The committee said: "We believe that this reflects careless behaviour on Mr Curry's part and that there was no intention on his part either to deceive or to derive an improper personal benefit.

"Mr Curry made some use of the property while on parliamentary business, which mitigates his failure to observe the rules.

"We recommend that Mr Curry repay 28,000 from the sums he claimed from allowances in respect of his use of his second home between July 2005 and March 2009."

In his evidence to the commissioner, Mr Curry admitted he moved out of the marital home in Essex during 2004 after having an affair.

When he was subsequently reconciled with his wife, the couple agreed that they needed to spend more time together and he all but stopped staying in Yorkshire overnight.

The MP dismissed his failure to change the designation of his main home from Essex in 2004 as a "non-issue".

The committee accepted that the public purse had not lost out as a result of the oversight, but added: "Nonetheless, this was a breach of the rules. It was not a 'non-issue'."

In a statement, Mr Curry apologised for the rule breaches and said he would hand back the money.

"I accept the conclusions of the Standards and Privileges Committee in the report published today," he said.

"I am grateful to the committee for its clear statement that in all the issues under investigation there was no intention on my part to conceal, deceive or derive personal benefit.

"I have already written to the chairman of the committee to apologise for the mistakes I made and will repay the amount requested."