Well, well. David Cameron has changed his mind and is withdrawing the whip from Derek Conway. This is not, I am told, in response to suggestions that the Tory MP paid his second son. It is a delayed reaction to yesterday's revelation of excessive payments to his other son, Freddie, and it follows a conversation between the Conservative chief whip and Mr Conway this morning.
I can only conclude that the Tory leader saw the damage that this story might do to him and his party, and decided that outweighed the damages of taking on Mr Conway which I outlined this morning.
First an MP is found to his "all but invisible" son in what was, at worst, "a serious diversion of public funds."
Then it emerges that . So why is Derek Conway not in more trouble? There are many small procedural answers and one very big political reason.
• It is not against the rules for MPs to employ members of their families. Indeed, many MPs defend the employment of their wives (it is, almost always wives) as secretaries on grounds of practicality and keeping marriages together when an MP鈥檚 job involves odd hours and travelling between constituencies and Westminster.
• The penalty Conway faces - repayment of up to 拢13,000 and possible suspension for 10 days - is severe compared with those normally handed out by the Commons.
• There has been no investigation yet into the employment - or lack of it - of his second son.
Now comes the political reason:
• Conway is a popular Tory MP who looked set to be his party's Chief Whip if David Davis had become Conservative leader. He was even talked of as a possible Speaker. Although David Cameron might be tempted to make an example of him he would be taking on a powerful coalition consisting of those who never wanted him to be leader plus the parliamentary old guard who regard questions about their allowances as challenging the assumption that all MPs are "honourable members" until proven otherwise (listen to Roger Gale MP's interview on Today this morning).
This, of course, is precisely why Labour's John Mann MP - who has turned into a professional complainer has called on Cameron to act.
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