MacShane by-election date set

A by-election to replaced disgraced MP Denis MacShane will be held on November 29. Labour formally started the process by moving the writ in the Commons to trigger the contest in the former Europe minister's Rotherham seat.

Former minister Mr MacShane, who resigned after a damning report into his use of parliamentary expenses to fund European trips and computers was published last week, had a 10,642-vote majority.

The Standards and Privileges Committee, which recommended that Mr MacShane should be suspended for 12 months, said it was impossible to say how much Mr MacShane claimed "outside the rules", but it "may have been in the order of £7,500.