Denis MacShane, Scottish journalist and politician, UK Minister of State for Europe
Denis MacShane (born Josef Denis Matyjaszek; 21 May 1948) is a British former politician, author and commentator who served as Minister of State for Europe from 2002 to 2005. He joined the Labour Party in 1970 and has held most party offices. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Rotherham from 1994 to his resignation in 2012.
Born in Glasgow to an Irish mother and Polish father who died from war related illness in 1958, MacShane was educated on a Middlesex County scholarship at St Benedict's School, Ealing and studied at Merton College, Oxford. He worked as a BBC journalist and trade unionist before completing a PhD at Birkbeck, University of London. He contested the Solihull constituency in October 1974 but was unsuccessful. After failing to be selected to contest a constituency at the 1992 general election, he was elected to parliament for Rotherham at a 1994 by-election. Following the 2001 general election, he was appointed a junior minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In April 2002, he became Minister of State for Europe and was appointed to the Privy Council. He returned to the backbenches after the 2005 general election.
In November 2012, Labour suspended MacShane when the Standards and Privileges Committee found he had submitted 19 false invoices "plainly intended to deceive" the parliamentary expenses authority. The allegations, which were made by the British National Party, had been investigated for 20 months by the Metropolitan Police. After the Commons upheld the complaint, he announced his intention to resign as MP for Rotherham and from the Privy Council. In November 2013, he pleaded guilty to false accounting at the Old Bailey, by submitting false receipts for £12,900. On 23 December, he was sentenced to four months in prison. He served his sentence in HM Prison Belmarsh and HM Prison Brixton, and subsequently by wearing an electronic tag.