Articles | Another Tory MEP resigns

Another Tory MEP resigns

Published: Friday, 6 June 2008, 6:15PM

Another top Tory MEP has lost his job in the second expenses scandal to hit the party in two days.

Den Dover has been replaced as the Conservatives' chief whip in Europe after admitting paying his wife and daughter £750,000 for work.

The news came less than 24 hours after the Tory leader in Europe, Giles Chichester, was forced to quit.

The South West MEP stepped down after David Cameron ordered him to explain why he transferred more than £400,000 of European Parliament staff expenses into a private family company.

Mr Cameron is now sending his new financial trouble-shooter to Brussels to sort out Tory MEPs' expenses.

Hugh Thomas, appointed in March as the Conservative Party's Head of Compliance, will visit the European Parliament next week in the wake of the growing expenses controversy.

The new acting leader of the Tory MEPs, Philip Bushill-Matthews, announced he was appointing South-East MEP Richard Ashworth as Mr Dover's replacement.