Apologies after expenses scandal

Gordon Brown and David Cameron have offered apologies for the row over MPs' expenses.

Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing annual conference in Harrogate, the prime minister said public trust would need to be rebuilt.

The comments came after days of damaging revelations about how MPs have exploited the Commons expenses regime.

"I want to apologise on behalf of politicians, on behalf of all parties, for what has happened in the events of the last few days," Brown said.

He added that MPs "must show that we have the highest standards for our profession".

"And we must show that, where mistakes have been made and errors have been discovered, where wrongs have to be righted, that that is done so immediately," the prime minister told the nurses' conference.

"We have also to try hard to show people and think hard about how a profession that, like yours, depends on trust - the most precious asset it has is trust - how that profession too can show that it is genuinely there to serve the public in all its future needs."

The Conservative leader said individual MPs should admit to their mistakes, while a "big acknowledgement" of errors is also needed.

Cameron said it was "not good enough" for MPs to say that they abided by the expenses rules.

"What I want is for Conservative MPs, as with other MPs, to come out and explain why they claimed what they claimed, to admit to any mistakes, if there have been mistakes, and collectively to say 'Look, this system was wrong, we took part in it, we operated it'," he told the BBC.

"It's not good enough to say we obeyed the rules. We need a big acknowledgement that we are sorry that this happened and it needs to change."