Harry Cohen apologises for breach of rules

A Labour MP ordered to forfeit his £65,000 resettlement grant for a "particularly serious breach" of parliamentary rules apologised to the Commons today.

Harry Cohen (Leyton and Wanstead) said he had the "greatest respect for Parliament" and "would not intentionally have wanted to do anything to tarnish its reputation".

"I am sorry if I have done so," he added.

Mr Cohen was ordered to apologise on the floor of the House by the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee over his second homes allowance claims.

Last week the committee ruled that Mr Cohen designated a house in Colchester, Essex, as his main home even though he was not living there for long periods and rented it out.

An investigation by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, John Lyon, found that Mr Cohen had consistently designated the house in Colchester as his main home since he bought it in 1998.

It enabled him to claim the second homes allowance on a succession of properties in his east London constituency.

However, from 2004 to 2008, Mr Cohen and his wife spent most of their time living in the constituency, while periodically letting out the Colchester house to tenants on six-month leases.

During that period he claimed and received more than £70,000 in second homes allowances, and the committee pointed out that an outer London MP with just one home would have been entitled to claim just £9,000 in the London supplement over the same period.

As a result, it said Mr Cohen should now forfeit the £65,000 resettlement grant which he was due to receive when he stood down as a MP at the forthcoming general election.

Mr Cohen told a sparsely-attended chamber, on a Friday sitting to debate backbench bills, that he had informed the committee he would concur with any decision they reached.

"I'm here to apologise to the House. I do so without proviso," he said.

"There was no intention of wrongdoing on my part, and I am sorry for my assumption that I was eligible to claim as I did, which was wrong."

Mr Cohen also apologised to his constituents, saying: "The good people of Leyton and Wanstead do not deserve to have their faith in their parliamentary representative so severely shaken. They deserve the best, untarnished representation.

"Also, the best of my efforts over the last 27 years has been to take up their cases, including of injustice to them.

"In the last intensive nine months of this inquiry into me I have had to give a lot of time to my own case, when I would have much preferred to have been dealing with theirs. I am sorry for any shortfall as a result."

The committee acknowledged that Mr Cohen faced particular difficulties as his wife Ellen suffered a stroke in 2004 and required regular treatment at a north London hospital, which made it impossible for them to carry on living in Colchester.

While it acknowledged that the couple had always intended to return to the Colchester house, where they plan to retire, it said it should have been clear by April 2004 that was not going to happen in the short term.

Mr Cohen told the Commons: "I publicly apologise to my wife Ellen, who is taking a lot of the flak. This situation is not her fault and she has suffered as a consequence. I am deeply sorry about that.

"Finally, I have the greatest respect for Parliament and would not intentionally have wanted to do anything to tarnish its reputation. I am sorry if I have done so."