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Twelve Tory MEPs fail to reveal expenses

06/06/2008

Controversy over the scale of MEPs' expenses continues to grow today, after lobby group Open Europe revealed 12 Conservative MEPs have failed to disclose their expenses.

The failure to be transparent about financial dealing will increase pressure on David Cameron to do something about his European party members.

Last night Tory MEP leader Giles Chichester resigned from his position after Mr Cameron told him to detail his financial dealing as soon as possible.

Mr Chichester had funnelled £445,000 of his European parliament expenses into a family business in which he and his wife are the sole directors.

The controversy is doubly embarrassing for Mr Cameron, given Mr Chichester was the man he turned to clean up Euro MEPs expenses following the Derek Conway affair.

Open Europe contacted MEPs asking basic questions about their expenses. Of the 28 Tory MEPs in the European parliament, 12 have failed to reply. But some of the replies already received offer fascinating insights into the usually ignored world of European politics.

Fifteen out of the 29 Tory MEPs employ family members, for instance. This includes people who may not have replied to the survey, but declared family members on their register of interests.

Open Europe has pledged to delve into the family members so they can establish whether there are any conflicts of interest

Hugo Robinson, head of research at Open Europe, told politics.co.uk: "A lot of it is at least as bad, or worse, than what's happening in Westminster. We're talking about large amounts of taxpayers' money."

"Those MEPs who have not replied should give a full explanation as to why not."