NORTH East Labour MP Frank Cook apologised today for apparently trying to claim back from the taxpayer a £5 donation he made during a church service to commemorate the Battle of Britain.

The Sunday Telegraph said the claim followed a memorial service in his Stockton constituency but was rejected by the House of Commons Fees Office.

Mr Cook said he had no recollection of asking to be reimbursed, but accepted that the newspaper would not have invented the claim.

Tonight Mr Cook explained that the note was in fact an IOU from a member of staff who attended the service and made the donation on his behalf that had been submitted in error.

The MP said 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.

"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 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."

In a statement released this morning, he said: “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.

"In over 26 years as a Member of Parliament I must have attended hundreds of services and other similar events and never once have I sought to claim for money I have paid as a donation or for a wreath.

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

The newspaper published a picture of a handwritten note attached to the claim which stated: "Battle of Britain church service, Sunday 17.09.06. £5 contribution to offertory on behalf of Frank Cook MP."