“I hope people will balance the good I have done for the community over the years with a foolish thing I did one evening several months ago. Although what the Sunday Mirror did was underhand I blame no one but myself. I hope I can be forgiven for that.”

The former Civil Society Minister was responding to an online poll in his local paper that found 58% of residents thought he should resign as an MP as well as from government. It was Brooks’ old department that watered down the Recall Bill…