Djanogly djettisons his djudgement

There is an extraordinary story on the Daily Telegraph website this evening (and, I believe, on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper). It reveals that Jonathan Djanogly, a justice minister and Tory MP for John Major's old seat of Huntingdon, hired a firm of private detectives to conduct an undercover investigation into his aides and colleagues.

The Telegraph says:

Investigators employed by Mr Djanogly used subterfuge to trick several people, including the MP’s constituency agent, into discussing their concerns about the politician.

Their findings were set out in a private report sent to the Huntingdon MP in July 2009 which concluded that aides in his local party believed he was a poor politician and had lied over his expenses claims, through which he paid more than £13,000 for a cleaner who also acted as his children’s au pair.

The firm hired by the minister previously came under scrutiny in court over links to potentially criminal activities to elicit private information.

It goes on to report Downing Street sources as saying that Djanogly's actions "can't be condoned". The MP himself says:

“I am sorry if some people judge that I made a mistake, with hindsight I can see that I may have overreacted, but I was being subjected to very malicious, anonymous attacks on my family. I paid for the cost of the investigation myself and did not claim it back on parliamentary expenses.”

Extraordinary stuff.

Note too the modern style of apology. Not "I'm sorry" but "I'm sorry if...".