MEPs fail to declare expenses as Tory bloodbath continues

Euro MEP expenses are increasingly coming under the spotlight

Friday, 06, Jun 2008 12:01

The controversy over Tory MEP expenses continues to build this afternoon as a second Tory head rolled over financial irregularities.

Den Dover, the Conservative chief whip in Brussels paid his wife and daughter a reported £750,000 for work over nine years.

The replacement follows the resignation last night of Tory MEP leader Giles Chichester after David 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.

The series of resignations comes as lobby group Open Europe revealed several Conservative MEPs had failed to declare their expenses.

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."

Labour MEP Richard Corbett broke ranks this morning to urge his fellow MEPs to publish a breakdown of how they spend their staff allowances.

He stressed the party hired independent auditors for staff allowances – a claim used by Labour to justify their lack of response to Open Europe's survey. But Mr Corbett also accepted the need to publish in addition to the audit, in an effort to create public trust.