Tory MP 'overpaid "invisible" son'

Monday, 28 January 2008 12:00 AM

A Conservative MP should be suspended for ten days after paying his son an unreasonably high salary for apparently little work, a committee of MPs has said.

The Commons standards and privileges committee upheld a complaint that Conservative MP Derek Conway employed his son on the equivalent of £25,970 a year without being able to provide any evidence he actually completed any work.

The MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup has now been ordered to repay nearly £10,000 and told to apologise to the House of Commons, from which he is set to be suspended for ten sitting days.

Mr Conway employed his son Freddie (FC) between September 2004 and August 2007 while he was a student at Newcastle University. The MP told the committee his son had been employed for an average of 17 hours a week.

However, the committee ruled that "on the balance of probabilities" it was unlikely the full-time student had worked the full 17 hours.

They noted he had been "all but invisible" during his period of employment and had "little or no contact" with his father's office.

In a starkly worded report the committee said it was "astonished that there appears to be no evidence, independent or otherwise, of any aspect of FC's work for his father."

The committee further raised concerns at the level at which FC was paid, concluding it was "substantially more" than the salary justified by his experience or qualifications.

This pay level alone would have constituted an improper use of the MP's allowance, the committee said.

But MPs also questioned the level of bonuses paid for FC. The committee said Mr Conway should have exercised his judgment more carefully, given there was a "clear personal motivation" for paying his son too generously.

Upholding the complaint, which was prompted by a report in the Times last May, the committee said "we are of the view that Mr Conway misused the staffing allowance".

The MPs said the arrangement was "at the least an improper use of parliamentary allowances" and "at worst, a serious diversion of public funds".

"Our view is that the reality may well be somewhere between the two," their report noted.

Mr Conway accepted he failed to keep adequate records of his son's employment.

In a statement to the House of Commons he said he accepted the committee's criticisms in full and apologised unreservedly to MPs.

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• conservatives
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• constitution
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• domestic policy
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• legal and constitutional
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• mps pay and allowances
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• party politics