Two down now.

Tory MEP Den Dover,the chief whip in Brussels has been sacked

Conservative Home reports

Philip Bushill-Matthews MEP, until yesterday Giles Chichester's Deputy and now acting leader of the Tory delegation to the European Parliament, has replaced Den Dover MEP with Richard Ashworth MEP as Chief Whip. Mr Dover is facing his own ethical questions but is protesting his innocence.

Meanwhile David Cameron is to send the enforcer to Brussels.In a release from CCHQ

On David Cameron’s instructions the Conservative Party’s new Head of Compliance, Hugh Thomas, will be sent to Brussels next week. His visit will have two purposes:
To reinforce the importance of the existing guidelines on MEP allowances announced in April, and to establish arrangements for regular publication of a breakdown of allowances on an equivalent basis to Members of Parliament.
Assess the efficiency of their current reporting procedures around expenses and office costs.
Hugh Thomas will also assess if further steps need to be taken before reporting back to David Cameron.

So that's the leader of the party and now the chief whip.

Chichester goes and maybe more on the way

The latest political sleaze is dominating the conversation today.

For anyone that has missed the news,Tory MEP Giles Chichester,under pressure from his party leader,was forced into resigning his post over expense claims totally nearly half a million pounds.

It emerged that over a period of 12 years he has transfer ed funds from his expense account to a company of which he is a director.He claimed that he was unaware of the rule.

How this affair will rebound on David Cameron is unclear,but for the second time,following the Conway affair,a Tory politician has been forced to resign over sleaze allegations.Cameron was quick to force the issue yesterday.

Adam Boulton claims

David Cameron is a lucky politician: the resignation of the leader of the Tories' MEPs in a financial scandal coincided, very conveniently, with the seizure of British diplomats by Robert Mugabe's thugs in Zimbabwe.
For once, you might say the Conservatives have something to be grateful to Mugabe for. A good day to bury bad news, you might also say.

and

Embarrassingly, Chichester was the person ordered by Cameron after the Derek Conway scandal at Westminster to make sure Tory MEPs' finances were all ship shape.

Guido meanwhile claims

there are still, right now, 13 Tory MEPs who refuse to disclose what they have done with their expenses. Den Dover has a very similar set-up to Chichester, with hundreds of thousands of pounds paid to a family firm based in his home, he has a lot of questions to answer.

and is currently looking in the affairs of another MEP.

Watch this space