ES News email The latest headlines in your inbox twice a day Monday - Friday plus breaking news updates Enter your email address Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid You already have an account. Please log in Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive lunchtime headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts, by email Update newsletter preferences

A Tory MP has apologised "unreservedly" for playing games on his iPad during a select committee hearing - as the Commons authorities launched a mole hunt for whoever caught him on camera.

Photographs published by The Sun showed Nigel Mills enjoying online hit Candy Crush Saga during a Work and Pensions Committee evidence session.

The Amber Valley MP, who has been issued with a tablet at the taxpayers' expense, initially told the newspaper he would merely "try" not to be diverted by the game again.

But in a statement this afternoon he said: "I apologise unreservedly for my behaviour at the committee meeting and realise it fell short of what is expected of a Member of Parliament.

"I guarantee it will not happen again. It is a fantastic privilege to represent Amber Valley and I hope constituents will continue to support my campaigns such as lower taxes for hardworking people."

Prime Minister David Cameron described Mr Mills as a "hardworking" politician, adding that he was sure he would "work even harder in future".

One of Mr Mills' senior Tory colleagues, Sir Edward Leigh, has reportedly suggested that he was only trying to "keep himself awake" during a boring committee meeting.

The committee met last Monday and was discussing pensions and the insurance industry ahead of the Chancellor's Autumn Statement announcement.

Candy Crush Saga is a free to download mobile game but users pay extra for more moves to improve their score. Having started out on social network Facebook, it moved on to mobile devices in 2012, and is now played more than a billion times a day, according to developer King.com.