A repayment plan allowing disgraced MP Derek Conway to pay back some of the taxpayers’ money he paid his student son for parliamentary work he never did, has been roundly criticised.
The former Conservative for Old Bexley and Sidcup became an Independent member after it was revealed he paid his son Freddie for work as a part-time research assistant between September 1, 2004, and August 24, 2007, a period where he was also at school and university.
Mr Conway was ordered to pay some of the money back over 12 months, starting in March.
Now Duncan Borrowman, the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for the constituency, has condemned the deal.
He said: “Derek Conway’s younger son received £50,000 in pay and pension contributions, even though no evidence was ever found that he worked for the money.
“Mr Conway also pocketed a £163,000 windfall from the sale of a property, understood to have been subsidised by the taxpayer. There are still no answers to questions as to whether Mr Conway’s other son, Henry, did any work for the £32,000 he was paid.”
Mr Borrowman, who made a formal complaint to the police about Mr Conway and asked the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to look at Henry Conway’s employment, added: “Mr Conway clings on to the Old Bexley and Sidcup seat in Parliament and will pick up a fat pension from taxpayers after the general election, but all he is paying back is a derisory £13,160 in 12 installments.
“If I was him I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night with the guilt.”
Mr Conway was ordered to pay back the £13,160 at a rate of £1,096 per month stopped out of his monthly pay.
The scandal led to the Conservative Party publishing all their members’ expenses and a register is being set up to declare when a family member is being paid by an MP.
In their report on the payments, the Standards and Privileges Committee said: “We note that Freddie Conway seems to have been all but invisible during the period of his employment. For the majority of that time he was based at Newcastle where he was engaged in a full-time degree course at the university. He had little or no contact with his father’s office, either in the House or in the constituency. No record exists of the work he is supposed to have carried out, or the hours kept.”
The Taxpayers’ Alliance said all of the money should be instantly paid, plus interest.
Spokesman Mark Wallace said: “Why on earth is this man being given so long to pay back the money he wrongly took from taxpayers? It is crazy he is still being paid by the taxpayer.”
Mr Conway told KOS Media: “The arrangement made for me is similar to that for other MPs of other political parties. Other than that I have no further comments to make.”
POSTED: 04/08/2008 08:00:00
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