Police chief questions Conway silence

The head of the Metropolitan police has demanded to know why an MP who overpaid his "invisible" son was not reported to the police.

Sir Ian Blair said the Commons standards commissioner's decision not to refer Derek Conway to the police had not "fully followed" procedure.

Mr Conway, Conservative MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, was suspended from the Commons for ten days and ordered to repay more than £13,000 after the standards and privileges committee found he had overpaid his son, supposedly for working in the Commons while studying full-time at university.

Last month MP Sir George Young, chairman of the standards and privileges committee, told MPs that police would not be called in, but it has now emerged Sir Ian was not satisfied with this response.

In a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority he said the force were not "ignoring the situation" but had been waiting for the commissioner to refer Mr Conway's case.

Asked to explain the protocol, Sir Ian replied: "There is a protocol. The protocol was agreed with the previous parliamentary standards commissioner. It doesn't appear from the face of it that that protocol was fully followed in this particular case.

"What we have done is to write to the standards commissioner and ask him whether he is going to refer the matter to the [Met] and if he isn't what are his reasons and we await that answer."

A spokesman for standards commissioner Sir John Lyons told reporters the situation had not changed from last month.

Mr Conway's suspension prompted a raft of soul-searching in Westminster about MPs' expenses.

The standards and privileges committee today ordered MPs to name any family members employed by their offices, to be published on the register of members' interests from April 1st.