A NORTH-EAST MP who said he was too busy to publish his expenses tried to reclaim a £5 church donation made during a Battle of Britain memorial service, it was revealed yesterday.

The 2006 claim, by Stockton North MP Frank Cook, was refused by the House of Commons fees office.

He had submitted a handwritten note, which stated: “Battle of Britain church service, Sunday 17.09.06. £5 contribution to offertory on behalf of Frank Cook MP.”

Details of the claim came as Gordon Brown said MPs will have to agree to a legally binding code of conduct as part of a plan to clean-up Parliament.

Last night, Mr Cook said the note was in fact an IOU from a member of staff who attended the service and made the donation on his behalf.

The MP said it had been submitted by mistake. He had been abroad at the time of the memorial and found the reminder when he returned.

“In my papers was the note of the donation he had made, quite properly, to remind me that I owed him,” he said.

“My mistake was in not then crumpling up the piece of paper and putting it in the waste bin. It then got caught up in other bits of paper and when I came to make my claim I foolishly, inadvertently and unjustifiably just included it in the claim.

“I feel such a stupid t**t. I feel silly for allowing this impression to go abroad to the electorate. It is a wrong one, but there is only one person to blame and you are looking at him.”

Publication of the claim in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph caused anger among North-East war veterans and charity fundraisers.

One of the region’s few surviving Battle of Britain veterans described it as “utterly disgraceful”. Terry Clark, 90, from Wheldrake, near York, as both a navigator and air gunner and shot down five Luftwaffe fighters.

Mr Clark, who was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal, said last night: “I don’t have words to express what I feel. I think it’s utterly disgraceful.”

Liz Chambers, of Middlesbrough Military Commemoration Association, which has helped organise memorial events across the region, said: “It is absolutely shocking.

“I can’t believe that someone would try to claim back money from a church donation.

The whole thing just leaves a bitter taste in your mouth.”

In 2005, Mr Cook was criticised for trying to claim nearly £1,500 to spruce up his overgrown garden at his London home. The bill was not paid.

Last month, when calls were made for MPs to disclose the contents of their expenses claims following the investigation by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Cook, who was deselected by the Labour group in January last year, told The Northern Echo he was “too busy” to deal with the matter. However, following yesterday’s revelation, he has broken his silence.

“Anyone who knows me will understand that there is no way in which I would seek intentionally to make a claim for a donation made at a church service or to a charitable cause,” he said.

“It was a genuine mistake and I stress again – I would never deliberately make a claim of this kind.”

The veteran MP, who has represented Stockton North since 1983, was deselected after failing to win the backing of party colleagues.