A third of British MEPs employ family members on expenses
David Brown, Fran Yeoman and Victoria Swalwell The Times - 29 May 2009
More than a third of British MEPs are paying their relatives hundreds of thousands of pounds, despite a ban by the European Parliament next month on employing family members.
The wives, husbands and children of MEPs are earning up to £40,000 a year to work as secretaries and researchers at a total annual cost to taxpayers of more than £700,000.
Campaigners called last night for all 78 British MEPs to stop employing relatives immediately to prevent any suspicion that public money was being misused. New Members of the European Parliament will be banned from hiring relatives, but those already employed can stay until 2014.
After the Westminster expenses scandal and less than a week before next Thursday’s European vote, the spotlight is now focusing on MEPs’ generous and largely unregulated expenses. MEPs were under pressure yesterday to publish receipts showing how they are spending their £3,800-a-month office allowances. The salary of British MEPs rises next month from £63,000 to £80,500. In total MEPs can receive expenses and allowances of £363,000 a year including a £261 daily subsistence allowance for simply turning up at work. They are entitled to £183,776 in staff allowances, £87,407 in travel expenses and £45,648 in general office expenses even though they are provided with offices in Brussels and Strasbourg.
The office allowance is paid automatically and they do not have to produce receipts to support the expenses or repay any underspend. One MEP said he had been told that just a handful of politicians have ever repaid any of their expenses because they had not spent the total amount.
Conservative MEPs have been ordered by David Cameron to publish details of their relatives’ employment and headline figures of their expenses. To date, all Lib Dem MEPs with the exception of Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne have published the details voluntarily. But Labour and UKIP have refused to order their Members to lift the veil of secrecy on expenses until after next week’s European elections. Labour has also said that its MEPs will begin to publish all their receipts relating to their office allowance every six months.
The published figures show that Tory MEPs spent an average of £3,312 a month in office expenses between September and December 2008. Liberal Democrat members spent an average of £2,900 a month last year.
Syed Kamall, a London Tory MEP, claimed almost £1,000 a month for stationery, periodicals and subscriptions. Chris Davies, MEP for North West England, was the top spending Lib Dem, spending £40,881 on office expenses last year including £9,000 on “communications”.
Although party leaders in Westminster have called for MPs’ expenses to be made public, almost two thirds of British MEPs voted recently against a new rule that the think-tank Open Europe said would have opened up claims to scrutiny for the first time.
Almost 80 per cent of British MEPs are still members of a lucrative and controversial second pension scheme paid for out of their taxpayer-funded office expenses. The scheme has has been scrapped for newly elected MEPs after an outcry in Europe.
Two thirds of the secondary pensions are paid for in supplementary payments by the taxpayer. The MEPs’ contribution of £1,052 a month is automatically deducted from their office expenses — but there are no checks to ensure that it is paid back.
Thirty British MEPs have admitted that a relative works for them. Den Dover, the Tories’ former Chief Whip in Europe, has already been expelled from the party after he was revealed to have paid £750,000 in staff and office allowances to the family-owned firm run by his wife and daughter. He has brought a legal challenge after being told to repay £445,000 in “unaccountable expenditure”.
Most MEPs who are employing relatives do so entirely within the rules, and have published the £10,000 salary band at which that person is paid.
Brian Simpson, a Labour MEP for North West England, lists his wife and son on his staff. Their combined salaries are up to £45,000 a year. Dulcie Atkins, wife of the Conservative MEP Sir Robert Atkins, earns up to £40,000 a year to work as his secretary, while Stewart Arnold, husband of Diana Wallis, the Lib Dem MEP and a European Parliament vice-president, earns up to £25,000 as her parliamentary assistant. Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, pays his wife Kirsten up to £30,000 to work as his secretary. He boasted last week that he had received a “vast sum” in expenses and allowances since becoming an MEP in 1999.
“I don’t know what the total amount is but — oh lor — it must be pushing £2 million,” he added.
Sixteen of the 27 Conservative MEPs have relatives working for them. Nirj Deva, MEP for South East England, pays his wife Indra up to £40,000 a year despite having four other full-time office staff and four part-time workers.
Critics claim that even if there is no suggestion of wrongdoing the employment of relatives reinforces the public perception of the European Parliament as a “gravy train”. Mats Persson, research director of Open Europe said: “It is not acceptable for any MEP to continue employing members of their family.” He added: “You have to ask why more than a third of British MEPs are employing their own relatives.”
Several British MEPs have been embroiled in scandal over their expenses and allowances. Giles Chichester stood down as a the Tory leader in Europe after it emerged he had paid thousands of staff allowances to a company of which he was a paid director. The South West MEP was cleared of wrongdoing by a parliamentary inquiry.
Tom Wise, an independent MEP for East of England, was charged last month with his researcher with false accounting and money laundering.
The former UKIP politician is accused of pretending his own bank account was actually that of Lindsay Jenkins. From November 2004 until October 2005, he is alleged to have channelled £39,100 into his own account, from which he paid Ms Jenkins £13,555. They have pleaded not guilty.
Ashley Mote, 73, who represents South East England as an independent, was found guilty of falsely claiming benefits of more than £65,000 and given a nine-month jail sentence in 2007. The former UKIP representantive has since been given permission to appeal against his conviction.
MEPs who acknowledge that their relatives work for them
Richard Ashworth Conservative: Sally Ashworth (wife)
Jim Allister Independent: Karen Allister (daughter)
Sir Robert Atkins C: Lady Dulcie Atkins (wife)
John Bowis* C: Caroline Bowis (wife)
Philip Bushill-Matthews* C: Angela Bushill-Matthews (wife)
Martin Callanan C: Jayne Burton (wife)
Michael Cashman Labour: Paul Cottingham (partner)
Giles Chichester C: Virginia Chichester (wife)
Richard Corbett Lab: Anne Corbett (wife)
Nirj Deva C: Indra Deva (wife)
Den Dover* Ind: Kathleen and Amanda Dover
Nigel Farage UKIP: Kirsten Farage (wife)
Malcolm Harbour C: Penny Harbour (wife)
Chris Heaton-Harris* C: Jayne Heaton-Harris (wife)
Roger Helmer C: Sara Harmer (wife)
Ian Hudghton Scottish Nationalist: Lily Hudghton (wife)
Stephen Hughes Lab: Cynthia Beaver (wife)
Dr Syed Kamall C: Sandira Beekoo (wife)
Robert Kilroy-Silk Ind: Jan Kilroy-Silk (wife)
Timothy Kirkhope C: Caroline Kirkhope (wife)
Baroness Ludford Lib Dem: Steve Hitchens (huband)
Neil Parish* C: Susan Parish (wife)
Brian Simpson Lab: Mark (son) and Linda Simpson (wife)
David Sumberg* C: Carolyn Sumberg (wife)
Charles Tannock C: Silvia Janicinova (wife)
Gary Titley* Lab: Charo Titley (wife)
Geoffrey van Orden* C: Frances van Orden (wife)
Diana Wallis Lib Dem: Stewart Arnold (husband)
Graham Watson Lib Dem: Rita Giannini-Watson (wife)
Glenis Willmott Labour: Edward Willmott (husband)
* Not standing for re-election
© The Times