Top Tory faces sleaze inquiry

Meriden MP Caroline Spelman, the Conservative Party Chair, is to face an inquiry into her use of MPs' expenses to hire a nanny, it has emerged.

The statement issued this afternoon by John Lyon, the official Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, comes as a surprise because just last week he seemed to be saying that no investigation was needed.
But Mr Lyon, the official Commons watchdog, has consulted a committee of MPs - chaired by Tory backbencher Sir George Young - which agreed an inquiry was needed.

The controversy surrounds Mrs Spelman's use of Commons expenses to employ a nanny, after she became an MP in 1997.

Mrs Spelman has said that the nanny, Tina Haynes, was paid to look after her children and do secretarial work for a "short term period" after her election to Parliament, between 1997 and 1998.

As MPs are allowed to claim expenses to pay their secretaries, this was not against Commons rules.
But it was claimed over the weekend that Ms Haynes in fact remained on the public payroll for almost two years, from April 1997 to March 1999, and that for at least some of this period she lived at the Spelman family home in Kent, more than 140 miles from Meriden.

We are waiting to see whether Mrs Spelman or Conservative Central Office will issue a formal statement in response to the news that the inquiry is going ahead.

But privately, Conservatives are drawing attention to the fact that Mrs Spelman herself asked for the investigation - and that there have been no official complaints about her.

Still, even the hint of sleaze at the top level of the party is a blow to the Tories.

Mrs Spelman will now be under a cloud of suspicion until the unquiry is completed - which could take months.