MPs release details of employing family

May 8 2008 Report by John Rowbotham

TWO of Lanarkshire’s four MPs use Parliamentary allowances to employ relatives.

Rutherglen and Hamilton West member Tommy McAvoy employs his wife Eleanor as a senior secretary/personal assistant.

Adam Ingram, who represents East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow has two family members on the public payroll.

His wife Maureen is office manager/secretary and he employs his cousin’s son Michael Courtney as a research assistant.

MPs agreed to release details of family members employed by them following the row over the Derek Conway affair.

The then Tory MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup was suspended from the House of Commons after it emerged that he had been using his MP’s allowance to employ his son, Freddie, in his private office.

There was no record of what, if any, work Freddie Conway had done to justify his salary.

In the wake of the Derek Conway row, the Advertiser in February asked MPs and MSPs whether they employed family members.

MSPs Michael McMahon, Andy Kerr, Tom McCabe and Alex Neil said they did employ relatives.

Lanark and Hamilton East MP Jimmy Hood said there were no family members on his staff, but Mr Ingram failed to return our calls.

Mr McAvoy “did not respond to surveys” but pointed the Advertiser to his website that lists Eleanor McAvoy as a staff member.

However, all MPs had to supply information on the employment of relatives to the Commons authorities, and that was included in the recently-published and up-dated Register of Members’ Interests.

Motherwell and Wishaw MP Frank Roy and Mr Hood confirmed that they did not employ family members.

Asked about his entry in the Register, Mr McAvoy told the Advertiser on Monday: “I am not prepared to make any further comment.

“The rules have been complied with. This is the end of this conversation.”

Mr McAvoy also lists in the Register the remunerated directorship of County Pub Company Limited, trading as The County Inn Public House, Duke’s Road, Rutherglen.

He has also itemised a residential flat in London, from which rental income is received, and a registrable shareholding in County Pub Company Ltd.

Mr Ingram has declared in the Register that he earns between £45,000 and £50,000 as a non-executive chairman of SignPoint Secure Ltd.

He was cleared to take up that appointment by the Government’s Advisory Committee on Business Appointments after stepping down last June from the job of Armed Forces Minister,

Mr Ingram also lists a visit to the site of a proposed wind farm on the Isle of Lewis hosted by AMEC Wind Energy.

The company paid for two return air fares from Glasgow to Stornaway for the MP and a member of staff.

Mr Ingram declined to comment on his entries in the Register.

Frank Roy makes no declarations in the Register.

Mr Hood lists his role as Parliamentary consultant to Scottish Coal at a remuneration of between £5,001 and £10,000.