Tory MEP dragged into sleaze row after paying £120,000 of taxpayers' cash to his own firm

Jun 8 2008 By Mark Aitken Political Editor

TORY leader David Cameron is sending an enforcer to Brussels after a rich Scots Tory admitted paying £120,000 to a firm he owns.

Millionaire landowner John Purvis funnelled the taxpayers' cash through a company, he admits to being a partner in.

The HQ of Purvis and Company is listed as Gilmerton House - his country mansion and estate near St Andrews.

The revelation he might have broken EU rules forbidding MPs from paying money to firms linked to them came as Hugh Thomas, the Tory Party Head of Compliance, prepared to travel to Brussels to tackle the crisis.

Banker Purvis - one of seven Scots MEPs including two Tories - is the fourth Tory facing allegations they have had their snouts in the Brussels trough.

He claimed £120,000 in expenses for an astonishing six members of staff.

In his register of interests, he said Purvis and Company was the "service provider" for paying his staff.

He also has another part-time assistant in Strasbourg.

At Gilmerton House, three miles from St Andrews, a woman said Purvis was not available.

She added: "He will be making a statement next week. He has nothing to add to his earlier statement. He has done nothing wrong."

Purvis, 69, said he had been paying staff through the firm for a number of years and had sought clarification in January 2007.

The MEP, vice-chairman of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee, said he did not know if he had breached the rules.

One European Parliament insider said: "As a banker and landowner, Purvis must be worth millions.

"It is astonishing someone who has a background in banking going back more than 40 years should be seeking clarification over his expenses."

Purvis was also caught up in an expenses row in 2004.

An investigation by an Austrian MEP named him as one of a number of British representatives who claimed allowances for sessions they didn't go to or attended for only a few minutes.

He described the claims as "nonsense" and insisted there was little point sitting through entire meetings if he only had an interest in one or two items.

THEY'RE SNOUT OF ORDER

NORTH-WEST England Tory MEP Den Dover was sacked.

He paid his wife and daughter £758,000 through a "service provider" company for support services over nine years.

TORY party chairman Caroline Spelman used her MP's parliamentary allowance to pay for a nanny.

She paid Tina Haines for secretarial work.

SOUTH-WEST England MEP Giles Chichester quit as the Tory Euro leader.

He had been told by Cameron to justify transferring £400,000 to pay staff into a private family firm.

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