LEOMINSTER MP Bill Wiggin says he's staying put after admitting an £11,000 expenses error, seeing off calls for his re-selection at a lively public meeting this afternoon (Wed).

Challenged from the floor to stand down, Mr Wiggin said he wasn't going to go if he wasn't guilty.

The MP said that re-selection would "send a signal" that he had done something wrong when he had, in fact, made an error - repeated 23 times on expenses claims meant to cover the mortgage on his London home but mistakenly attributed to his Herefordshire home.

Mr Wiggin's re-selection was also raised with Christopher George, chairman of North Herefordshire Conservative Association, who told the audience the issue was not something that could be answered "on the hoof".

Mr George said re-selection was a matter that would have to go to the constituency management board.

Around 150 people packed Leominster's Rankin Club for the meeting - with a large crowd gathered in Corn Square outside - to hear Mr Wiggin apologise for the form-filling error that had him claiming more than £11,000 in mortgage related expenses against the Herefordshire home he bought outright when the money was meant for his address in London.

Mr Wiggin, who has the backing of Tory leader David Cameron, put the payments down to an error repeated 23 times on claims forms until it was pointed out by the Parlimentary Fees Office and amended, without any financial benefit to himself.

He said: "I wasn't caught out, I was told I was wrong. I haven't claimed anything that I was not entitled to claim."

At the meeting, criticism was focused not so much on the error itself but the circumstances that allowed it to happen.

Mr Wiggin also enjoyed support from several speakers.