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More Tory MEPs caught up in expenses row

08/06/2008

David Cameron is to send Hugh Thomas, the Conservative party’s head of compliance, to Brussels this week to scrutinise MEPs’ claims after further revelations in two newspapers today.

The Sunday Times newspaper has revealed Sir Robert Atkins, a Tory MEP and former government minister, used his parliamentary expenses to fly to his son's wedding in the US.

Sir Robert, 62, who served in the Thatcher and Major governments, attended the ceremony at Montclair, New Jersey, in November 2006. He said that it “coincided” with an official invitation, making it possible for the taxpayer to pick up travel and hotel bills.

Sir Robert insisted he had fully complied with parliamentary rules for the wedding trip. He said the event coincided with an invitation from the Republican National Committee and in a statement this weekend emphasised that his expenses were approved by the parliamentary authorities.

“The allowance contributed to the cost of my flight, hotel and travel to the various locations where I was either campaigning or discussing current political issues with Republican party members [in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut],” he said.

Atkins is also among the many MEPs who put family members on the payroll. His wife, Dulcie, is employed as a secretary and his son, James, worked for him in Brussels until 2004.

Meanwhile, the Sunday Mail reveals Scots Tory MEP John Purvis has admitted paying £120,000 of tax payers money to a firm he owns.

Millionaire landowner John Purvis funnelled the taxpayers' cash through a company, he admits to being a partner in. He claimed £120,000 in expenses for six members of staff.

In his register of interests, he said Purvis and Company was the "service provider" for paying his staff.

Mr Purvis, 69, said he had been paying staff through the firm for a number of years and had sought clarification in January 2007.

He was also caught up in an expenses row in 2004.

An investigation by an Austrian MEP named him as one of a number of British representatives who claimed allowances for sessions they didn't go to or attended for only a few minutes.

One of the practices Mr Thomas will review when he arrives in Brussels will be the use of companies for paying staff and providing parliamentary services.

Den Dover was removed as chief whip last week as it was revealed that he had paid up to £750,000 to a firm run by his wife and daughter.

The accounts of the Dover family company, MP Holdings, reveal that it spent £32,000 on repairs, thought to be on the family’s Hertfordshire home. A further £56,411 went on motoring costs and £75,397 on postage and stationery.

Caroline Spelman, the party chairman tasked with ensuring that MPs’ expenses are beyond reproach, was also this weekend defending her decision to use expenses to pay her nanny for secretarial work. She said yesterday she would refer the matter to the parliamentary standards commissioner. “I thought I was entirely within the rules – and that is still my belief,” she added.

The expenses row is a setback for Mr Cameron after his party’s surge in the opinion polls. It was triggered after the Sunday Times disclosed last weekend how Giles Chichester, the Tory leader in the European parliament, had channelled £445,000 of expenses via a family firm.

Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary, also faces questions over a donation of almost £160,000 from Ian Taylor, an oil magnate whose company was fined for trading in Iraq in defiance of sanctions.

The donation was registered with the Electoral Commission as a gift to the Tory party. But a spokesman for his firm said he had made donations to Duncan’s private office.