Caroline Spelman cleared of intentional rules breach.

Caroline Spelman has been cleared of intentionally breaching commons expenses rules. However, the Commons standards and privileges committee said Caroline must repay £9,600.

In its report, the committee said Spelman: "Had little time in which to prepare for membership of the House. "Her limited familiarity with the Rules of the House at the time is understandable. "Mrs Spelman also faced a backlog of constituency casework which had accumulated following the death of her predecessor and this must have placed her under additional pressure at what was a frenzied time."

Caroline said:

"I fully accept the findings of this inquiry which I sought because I wanted the opportunity to clear my name. "I am glad the committee finds that the work done by Tina Haynes met a genuine need for an assistant in the constituency, that she was qualified to do the job and that the work was done. "However, as the committee notes, the arrangements had the unintended effect of misapplying some of my parliamentary allowances for non-parliamentary purposes, for which I am sorry."

"This is a finding which I take very seriously and I will of course immediately pay the money in question back. It took place more than a decade ago when I was a new MP. "But I apologise sincerely for it. I fully accept people have a right to expect the highest standards from people in public life."

Is this the end of this story? I remember posting that this was a storm in a teacup at the time.

More HERE