JUSTIN Tomlinson has made an emotional apology to his fellow MPs after he was criticised for sharing a confidential report with payday loan firm, Wonga.

The North Swindon MP now faces being suspended from the House of Commons for two days following a report by the a committee of his fellow MPs.

The incident happened in 2013 when Mr Tomlinson was a member of the Public Accounts Committee.

They were working on regulations to protect consumers and he shared a draft report with an employee of Wonga - seemingly in an effort to find ways to strengthen the measures being proposed.

Now a report by the Privileges Committee has found that his decision to share the document constituted a "substantial interference" and that in doing so he "committed a contempt."

However it also finds that Mr Tomlinson "did not act in the way he did for financial gain nor with the intention of reflecting the views of the company concerned."

They add that his "motives, his relative inexperience and his immediate and unreserved apology for his actions" are significant mitigating factors.

Mr Tomlinson got to his feet in the Commons on Thursday morning to make what he described as a "full and unreserved apology."

He said: "These actions came as a result of my own naivety, driven by a desire to strengthen regulations on payday lenders and protect vulnerable consumers.

"The Commissioner for Standards confirmed this as my motivation based on evidence that I had worked on cross-party campaigns to protect consumers, and that I had long argued for tighter regulation of the payday lending industry.

"I completely accept the findings of the report published today. I accept that my actions in sharing the report constitute an interference in the work of the Committee of Public Accounts, and for this I am truly sorry.

“This was never my intention.”

Mr Tomlinson's statement was warmly received by fellow MPs who will decide in October whether to accept the recommendation of a two-day suspension.

Speaker John Bercow reassuringly added: "The matter rests there, that's the end of it."