FORMER government minister and South Dorset MP Jim Knight has been rapped for doctoring documentation in an attempt to subsidise party literature with thousands of pounds in expenses.

The former MP, now a Labour peer, signed and backdated papers by more than two years.

The Standards and Privileges Committee has ordered Lord Knight to repay more than £3,600 spent on a printing machine following the “misjudgement”.

If it had happened before he lost his seat in May he would have faced punishment for bringing parliament into disrepute, the committee said.

Lord Knight said: “It was not my intention to mislead. It was an embarrassing error of judgement.”