The two students whose “employment” at public expense brought down their father appear to lead a gilded life far removed from Derek Conway’s working-class upbringing in Tyneside.

Henry Conway, 25, and his brother Freddie, 22, who both attended the £24,000-a-year Harrow School, were each paid at least £10,000 as researchers for their father while at university.

Henry, a fashion writer who once crowned himself “Queen Sloane” in a BBC interview, had the distinction of entitling a party he threw at a Chelsea nightclub last November the “F*** Off I’m Rich” party.

The Cambridge University graduate is also known to put on themed parties at the Mahiki nightclub in London, a favoured haunt of Prince Harry.

It was his Freddie’s entries on the social networking website Facebook that proved that he was a full-time undergraduate at Newcastle University while he was being paid as a researcher by his father. Freddie , who is thought to be at Sandhurst, posted pictures of his 21st birthday party he held on the terrace of the Commons.

On another website, Bebo, Freddie’s friends wrote about his holiday exploits in Thailand and Mexico.

Derek Conway is not alone within Westminster in employing his members of his family, however. The practice is so widespread that many of those involved in Derek Conway’s case are in a similar position.

A fellow Conservative MP Sir George Young, chairman of the Standards and Privileges Committee, which proposed Mr Conway's ten-day suspension, retains his daughter, Camilla, as his secretary. Patrick McLoughlin, the party’s Chief Whip, who advised David Cam-eron on what action he should take, employs his wife as his secretary. The wife of Roger Gale, the Tory backbencher who was one of the few prepared to defend Mr Conway yesterday, works as his constituency secretary.

The Times yesterday counted 40 MPs, from all three main parties, who list family members among their staff. This is an underestimate because it excludes those using maiden or married names. Another 35 MPs list wives, husbands, sons and daughters in the register of interests for Members’ secretaries and research assistants, although some have Commons passes rather than paid jobs.

MPs who employ family members include Margaret Beckett, whose omnipresent husband, Leo, is her parliamentary assistant, Sir Menzies Campbell, whose wife, Elspeth, is his constituency secretary, and Quentin Davies, the Tory MP who defected to Labour, whose wife, Chantal, is his parliamentary assistant.

Members of the Government include Caroline Flint, the Housing Minister, whose husband, Phil Cole, works in her constituency office; Stephen Ladyman, the Transport Minister, whose wife, Janet, is his constituency office manager, and Tommy McAvoy, a senior whip, whose wife, Eleanor, works in his constituency office.

Even the Speaker, Michael Martin, has been involved in controversy in the past over payments to his wife and daughter, both called Mary, for working in his constituency office.

MPs insist that there is nothing wrong with hiring family members, provided that they work hard in the job they are paid to do.

Mr McLoughlin told The Times: “A lot of Members of Parliament do employ their wives and there is no rule to prevent them from doing so. They usually find they get very, very good service as a result of that. Sometimes – occasionally – things go wrong, but these are rare cases.”

But trade unionists representing MPs’ staff have pressed for greater checks to ensure that spouses and children hired by politicians are working as they should. Kevin Flack, secretary of the T&G (Unite) Parliamentary Staff Branch, which has 400 members, said: “It causes great ill-feeling in an office as an MP always sides with that member of staff. There should be greater checks that the person is doing the job. The Conway case is probably the tip of the iceberg.”

What they can pay

— Since 2001 the Commons has issued standard contracts for MPs’ staff and set pay bands, based on a 37.5hour week, that range from a starting salary of £13,082 for caseworkers to £38,623 for the most experienced assistants

— Bonuses of up to 15 per cent of salary are allowed, although critics say the system is open to abuse because the MP rather than the Commons is the employer

— MPs raised their staff budgets last week from £90,505 to between £96,630 and £102,650 a year, depending on whether the staff are based in London. It is intended to allow for three full-time staff and one part-time employee

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