Conservatives use £1.5m of taxpayers' money a year to pay relatives

By: Daily Mail Reporter
Date: 17th July 2008

 

Nearly a third of Tory MPs pay relatives from their taxpayer-funded expenses - at a total cost of £1.5million a year.

New figures show 61 Conservatives employ members of their family out of their £102,000 staffing perk. Sixteen of them pay relatives as much as £40,000 to help run their parliamentary or constituency offices.

They include chief whip Patrick McLoughlin's wife Lynne, who earns up to £39,999 as a constituency secretary. Frontbencher Laurence Robertson employs both his wife, Susan, from whom he has separated, and Anne Adams, the girlfriend whose affair with him was said to have led to the breakup.

The details were revealed yesterday as the Tories published the most extensive breakdown of MPs' expenses of any party at Westminster.

The information includes second homes allowances, travel and office costs. The biggest mortgage interest claim was £9,600 from Eleanor Laing, MP for Epping Forest. The highest car mileage claim - £3,542 - was from Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater).

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