Spelman under pressure over nanny row

Pressure is mounting for Conservative chairman Caroline Spelman to provide documentation in an expenses row.

Demands are being made that she produce proof that the nanny whom she paid from public funds was also working as her constituency secretary.

Mrs Spelman has confirmed she paid Tina Haynes from her parliamentary allowances for a period of months after she was first elected to the Commons in 1997, but said this was because she was performing secretarial duties during school hours before looking after her three children later in the day.

"At the time, I thought it was entirely within the rules - and that is still my belief," said Mrs Spelman.

Ms Haynes has released a statement confirming that her work for Mrs Spelman in 1997/98 included both childcare and administrative duties.

But Labour MP John Mann insisted that if Ms Haynes was indeed employed as a secretary, she would have left a "paper trail" of computer files and initialled documents, and said Mrs Spelman should produce them or pay back the funds she claimed from her parliamentary staffing allowance.

He said: "The use of the money was clearly inappropriate. It may well have been inadvertent, but she should put her hands up and pay the money back and that would be the end of the matter as far as I'm concerned.

"I think the cover-up is much worse - and a much bigger problem for the Conservative Party - than the original offence."

Mrs Spelman is due to meet Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon on Monday, after she decided to refer the case to the watchdog herself so that he can judge whether rules were broken.

Meanwhile, there are fresh questions over Tory expenses claims at the European Parliament, with reports that Conservative MEP Sir Robert Atkins attended his son's wedding in the USA during a visit paid for from parliamentary allowances.

Sir Robert said the wedding coincided with an invitation from the Republican National Committee to make a visit to meet party members in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The report follows the resignation of the Conservative leader in the European Parliament Giles Chichester after it emerged he transferred more than £400,000 of staff expenses to a private family company.

The party's chief whip in Brussels, Den Dover, was also replaced after insisting there was nothing amiss in paying his wife and daughter a reported £758,000 over nine years through a company for secretarial and support services.

The string of revelations about expenses claims is an embarrassment for Mr Cameron, particularly as he had given both Mrs Spelman and Mr Chichester roles in overseeing the propriety of the use of public funds by MPs and MEPs.

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