Leaders get tough on MPs' staffing

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Tory leader David Cameron and the Lib Dems' Nick Clegg all made it clear that they expected greater openness by their MPs about who was on their payroll.

Mr Cameron disclosed that a ring-round of Conservative MPs had found more than 70 who employed wives, husbands or other family members. He said that as a "first step" he was asking all Tory frontbenchers to register any family member paid for out of their MP's staffing allowance from April 1.

"What needs to happen more broadly is a change of culture at Westminster. For a long time allowances were seen as a top-up to pay that wasn't increasing," he said. "We live in a different age where more transparency, more openness, is rightly required and MPs have to respond to that."

Mr Brown immediately made clear that he expected all Labour MPs - not just frontbenchers - to identify any family members working for them.

"We have said there has got to be transparency in all of these things," he said. "Transparency from every MP, not just one group of MPs. This is taxpayers' money. People have to be sure that the money is going to people who are actually doing the job."

His political spokesman said that the move had been agreed at a meeting with Labour Chief Whip Geoff Hoon.

Mr Clegg called for a ban on MPs employing more than one family member, as well as spot-checks on expenses claims with a requirement to produce receipts on all items over £50, rather than £250 as at present. He said that he had now posted details of all the staff working for him on his websites, and he urged other Lib Dem MPs to follow his example.

"There's a huge challenge for Westminster to haul itself from the 19th century into the higher standards of transparency in the 21st century," he said.

The Commons Members Estimate Committee, chaired by Speaker Michael Martin, is due to meet on Monday to discuss a proposal for the National Audit Office to conduct spot checks on up to 10% of MPs' expenses claims to ensure they are genuine. It comes after the suspension on Thursday of Mr Conway, the Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, from the Commons for 10 sitting days after he was found to have improperly used his staffing allowance to employ his university student son as a researcher.