'I'm sorry,' disgraced Denis MacShane tells voters

Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon issued a damning report into Mr MacShane’s expenses, saying he was in breach of the rules for 19 claims amounting to £12,900.

The scandal was described by a Commons panel as the ‘gravest case’ of financial deception it had ever dealt with.

In an emotional article for today’s Rotherham Advertiser, Dr MacShane apologises for being ‘stupid’.

He writes: “How do I say sorry? Rotherham has been such an important part of my life and I have let this wonderful town, its terrific people and my constituency down so very badly.

“I accept fully the responsibility for my actions.

“The waters close over and my parliamentary life is at an end.

“Why? That I was at grievous fault there can be no doubt.”

Letters from Denis MacShane to Standards Commissioner John Lyon document the ex-MP’s excuses for his apparent overspending.

In one note justifying his budget for laptops and personal computers he said that he regarded the machines as “tools to be used, discarded, bought for co-workers,” adding that he ‘gave no thought to the cost of purchase’.

Dr MacShane also said that he refused to use computers provided for his work by the Commons because they were “clunky, slow and heavy”.

Justifying the extra expense of buying faster PCs, Dr MacShane said he had assumed that “if... there was anything amiss or to be questioned” then the expenses authority would have let him know.

In another letter he admitted that the “management of (his) financial administration was simply inept.”

He blamed his failure to deal properly with his finances on “personal and professional circumstances which were particularly distressing” — namely his replacement as Minister for Europe in 2005.

You can read the full apology with reaction from voters and Dr MacShane’s political opponents in today’s Rotherham Advertiser.