WESTCOUNTRY Liberal Democrat MP Richard Younger-Ross has been criticised in a parliamentary report over his role in a second-home scandal.

The Teignbridge MP made a "serious misjudgment" by putting "personal interest before public interest", when he accepted £8,000 in windfall money from a developer in return for higher rent at his home in Dolphin Square, London.

The taxpayer ended up paying more as a result of the deal, while Mr Younger-Rosskept the money.

A nine-month inquiry into his conduct, and that of five other MPs, by the Committee on Standards and Privileges has found he breached the MPs' Code of Conduct and increased costs to the public purse.

He has been ordered to pay back half of the £8,000 he made and apologise in writing to the House of Commons.

But despite the stinging criticism, he says the scandal is not a resigning matter and he has vowed to fight on at the forthcoming election.

He said yesterday: "I accept the report and that what I did was a serious error of judgment. I did not seek to make a profit out of it. I used the money for my personal office and my work here and staff, all of which costs more than the office costs allowance."

The claim made against the MP was that the £8,031 he accepted from the new owners in return for a new tenancy agreement led to taxpayers paying substantially more in rent.

Mr Younger-Ross said he had not acted dishonestly and used the money to pay for the running costs of his constituency office.

The committee accepted this but found: "Mr Younger-Ross made a serious misjudgment when he decided to accept the principal offer of a lump sum without sharing it with the public purse and that in doing so he breached the Code of Conduct by putting his personal interest before public interest.

"We also note that his decision led to a substantially increased cost to the public purse."

The MP accepted a "cash and stay" offer in 2005-06 from the new owners of the flat. His rent, paid for by taxpayers, then rose from £14,203 per year to about £18,700 in 2008-09.

In his defence Mr Younger-Ross claimed the cost to the taxpayer did not increase because if he had not accepted the payment, he would have claimed more money from his allowance to redecorate the flat.

The committee said this defence was "too hypothetical to be of relevance".

Mr Younger-Ross said yesterday he had spoken to his constituency chairman Wally Protheroe and Teignbridge Council leader Alan Connett and they were both fully behind him.

"This is a matter that was decided very early last year when we had a special constituency meeting to go through issues and look at possible outcomes," he said.

"That meeting felt that if it was found I made an error of judgment, then so be it, but that my work as a constituency MP should continue."

His main political rival for the Newton Abbot seat at the next election, Tory candidate Anne Marie Morris, said: "I don't feel it's appropriate to comment on this issue. My campaign is about debating the important issues."