soon as it was clear that i was wrong, and as soon as the sue gray investigation and the metropolitan police investigation had concluded, i came to the house of commons and i corrected the record as i promised i would. i clearly could not have anticipated the outcome by coming earlier because i genuinely did not know what the outcome would be. and was deeply shocked when fines were issued, not least since i had been told on a couple of occasions at least, bite sue gray, that she did not think the threshold of criminality had been breached. i believe the committee's work helps to explain why i was so shocked. you have been investigating this for more than ten months and i thank you for what you have done. you have had access to a vast body of evidence, you have collected and reviewed hundreds of pages of transcripts and sue gray's interviews and you have