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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Police chief seeks Conway answers | Police chief seeks Conway answers |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has written to the Commons standards commissioner asking why the Derek Conway case was not referred to police. | Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has written to the Commons standards commissioner asking why the Derek Conway case was not referred to police. |
| Sir Ian said it appeared the agreed protocol had not been "fully followed". | |
| Mr Conway, a Tory MP, was reprimanded for paying his son almost £40,000 for work as a Parliamentary researcher, when he was a university student. | Mr Conway, a Tory MP, was reprimanded for paying his son almost £40,000 for work as a Parliamentary researcher, when he was a university student. |
| The Commons standards committee, which investigated the case, said it would not be referred to police. | The Commons standards committee, which investigated the case, said it would not be referred to police. |
| A spokesman for Standards Commissioner John Lyon said that position had not changed. | |
| Mr Conway has since had the Conservative whip withdrawn, was suspended from Parliament for 10 days and ordered to repay £13,161. | Mr Conway has since had the Conservative whip withdrawn, was suspended from Parliament for 10 days and ordered to repay £13,161. |
| 'Await answer' | |
| News of Sir Ian's letter emerged at a meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority on Thursday. | |
| Asked by a member of the MPA to explain the protocol in such a case, Sir Ian said: "There is a protocol. The protocol was agreed with the previous Parliamentary standards commissioner. It doesn't appear from the face of it that that protocol was fully followed in this particular case." | |
| He added: "What we have done is to write to the Standards Commissioner and ask him whether he is going to refer the matter to the MPS and if he isn't what are his reasons and we await that answer." | |
| The Conway case has prompted a full review of MPs allowances and expenses and the Commons standards committee recommended earlier that it be compulsory for all MPs to register family members working for them. | |
| Sir Ian added that police were not "ignoring the situation" but in such cases started from the position that the "adjudicating authority has a right and role first and we will wait and see what the answer is". |