Disgraced MP Denis MacShane has said the death of his former partner, Brighton newsreader Carol Barnes, contributed to him cheating the expenses system.

The former Europe minister resigned on Friday after a cross-party committee of MPs called for him to be suspended for 12 months.

It follows Mr MacShane submitting falsified invoices to pay for official trips to EU countries.

Mr MacShane said having to hold “the hand of my first daughter’s mother, Carol Barnes, as she lay dying from a stroke for a week in 2008” had a major impact on his behaviour.

Ms Barnes died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, in March 2008.

After her death, The Argus named its Courageous Child of the Year Award after the former resident of Brighton Marina. The prize is given out at The Argus Achievement Awards each year.

Mr MacShane said he “unreservedly” accepted the committee’s findings but said personal tragedy was behind his behaviour.

In a letter to the committee, he wrote: “How did this foolish and wrong behaviour come about? I was as Mr Lyon generously recognises under great pressure in this period.

“I had lost a daughter in a sky-diving accident in Australia, gone through a wrenching divorce and held the hand of my first daughter’s mother, Carol Barnes, as she lay dying from a stroke for a week in 2008. To overcome these griefs I did what many do and buried myself in work.

“I accepted extra parliamentary delegation work from the Labour party. I chaired the all-party commission on inquiry into anti-semitism which was hailed as a model of its kind and changed Government policy. I wrote two books and hundreds of articles, but claimed under the wrong heading as Mr Lyon rightly notes.

“Foolishly and wrongly I paid no attention to the administration of my expenses claims.”

He also allowed interns to keep laptops, paid for by Parliament, when their internships came to an end.

ITN newsreader Carol Barnes had a six-year relationship with Mr MacShane from 1975 to 1981. The couple had a daughter Clare, who died in 2004 in a skydiving accident in Melbourne.

The findings of the committee raise the prospect of a second police investigation into his expenses. Police decided to take no action against MacShane in July after a lengthy investigation.

But a Metropolitan Police spokesman said Scotland Yard would now examine the committee’s report. The spokesman said: “We are aware of the report and will be assessing its content in due course.”