Birmingham MP and Home Office minister Liam Byrne has pleaded guilty to using a mobile phone while driving.
The immigration minister, MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill, told Sutton Coldfield magistrates' court in a letter that he was taking an important call on a deportation matter at the time of the offence.
Mr Byrne, 37, a former police minister, was fined £100 with £35 costs and a £15 victim surcharge. He was also given three points on his licence.
In his letter he expressed remorse for the offence and told magistrates he accepted that there was no excuse, and that he should have pulled over to take the call.
Magistrates said that his fine would have been £150, but was reduced because of Mr Byrne's prompt guilty plea and expression of remorse. The offence took place on July 6 this year, when Mr Byrne drove along Tyburn Road, in Birmingham, using a hand held mobile phone.
