Every Labour member I spoke today could barely contain their glee at revelations that Tory MP Derek Conway had paid his son close to £45,000 as a “researcher,” despite there being no evidence the boy had done any work.
Indeed, considering he was studying full time in Newcastle, some distance from both Parliament and his father’s outer London constituency, it is hard to imagine what substantive contribution he could have made.
To be sure, the scandal has taken the spotlight off Labour – in the last news cycle Gordon Brown was having to stand up for Alan Johnson in the face of another scandal about deputy leadership campaign donations.
The PM must have wished there had never been a deputy election.
The Conway scandal is much more serious than the Hain incident, and it is telling that it took David Cameron a day to decide to remove the whip from Conway.
A spokesman for the Tory leader was saying yesterday: "Derek Conway has apologised fully on the floor of the House.
"The whip will not be withdrawn. The proper punishment has been administered."
Today, the Leader of the Opposition said that he has reconsidered and apparently realised that the offence was so great (the offence being moving the spotlight away from Labour sleaze) that Conway would receive the ultimate punishment.
Wasn’t it David Cameron who solemnly declared just the other day that the PM had dithered in not removing Hain from office before the Electoral Commission referred his campaign donations to the police?
Now it appears poor Conway also had a similar arrangement with his elder son, Henry.
I am sure you have seen a picture of Henry. A very flamboyant-looking young man in my view.
Look, there he is with former Eastenders starlet and Cockney sparrow Martine McCutcheon.
He has variously been described as a fashion writer, a club promoter, a “socialite” and, in the inimitable words of the Daily Mail, “he is a regular at gay clubs frequented by Elton John and David Furnish, and once described himself as "blond, bouncy and one for the boys."”
Fabulous!
In any case, it appears that Mr Conway’s generosity will spell the end of a Parliamentary career that began in 1983.
We will have to wait and see if Peter Hain can clear his name – it is unlikely he will be asked to rejoin the Cabinet.
So far Harriet Harman, Peter Hain and Alan Johnson have been accused of improperly declaring donations to their campaigns for deputy leader.
Labour MPs must be hoping that Hilary Benn, Hazel Blears and Jon Cruddas were more diligent.
