Mr McNulty, who has agreed to pay back more than £13,000 in second home allowances, was speaking after apologising unreservedly to the Commons yesterday.
The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee found he had effectively been “subsidising” his parents from public funds.
He said: “In the end it’ll be for my constituents and the electorate to determine what my future will be.
“I know that people will see it differently in terms of their perception, but let’s be clear, in the body of the commissioner’s report he actually says there was no loss in any terms to the taxpayer.
“It may be a system that the people don’t like, and I understand the debate around that, but I think overwhelmingly the MPs have not been fiddling, diddling and going into criminality.”
But he admitted that some of the claims by his fellow MPs had been “excessive” and in “bad form”.
Mr McNulty added: “My abiding reason for all my arrangements was, ‘How can I do my role as MP in the best way possible?’
“They were, whatever people think of the system, as straightforward and parsimonious as possible.
“I care deeply what people think and that’s why I did apologise to the House, I meant the apology to the House.”
In a report to the committee, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon found that Mr McNulty was entitled to claim on the house in his Harrow constituency, even though it was only nine miles from his main home.
But he said the former employment and home office minister had overclaimed in relation to the time he spent there in connection with his parliamentary duties.
As a result, Mr McNulty and his parents, who were living rent-free at the property, had “obtained a benefit from parliamentary funds to which he was not entitled”.
In his statement to MPs, Mr McNulty said he had followed the guidance given by the Commons Fees Office but accepted Mr Lyon was entitled to take a different view of the rules and to impose it retrospectively.
“I should have been much clearer about my arrangements and taken steps to ensure that I was not open to any charge of benefit and should have had much more concern for how these rules were perceived by the public, rather than just following them,” he said.
“I apologise for any part I have played in the diminution of the standing of this House in the eyes of the public. It is, however, time to move on. I apologise to the House once again without reservation.”
Mr McNulty became one of the most high-profile casualties of the MPs’ expenses scandal when he resigned as employment minister last June in Gordon Brown’s Government reshuffle.
Asked in Brussels if it was right that Mr McNulty should stand again at the general election, Mr Brown said the committee had “chosen to ask him to pay back his money and apologise to the House of Commons and that is what he’s done.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article