Why no prosecution and jail time?

Richard, London,

Funny how these people are 'devasted', 'in shock' and 'hugely remorseful' - once they've been rumbled and strangely, not before.

David, St Albans, UK

The nation is aghast - oh yes ! But I'll wager that the voters will form tribes at the next election ,and all will be forgotten, as the next Honourable administration full of hope and promise, promptly degenerates into the usual inhabitants of the cesspool. How many of these MPs who see the public purse as a perk, served as councillors or in local civil service. that is where I believe the training ground for corruption is.

william, Southampton, UK

I live in Bexley and I do not want Mr. Conway to contiue to be my MP. He has acted disgracefully. He should resign NOW.

Elwyn Bryant, Bexley, Kent

And exposed by a member of the BNP. How ironic.

stevgillamos, Romford,

If Mr Conway had carried out this trick in business he would have been sacked and prosecuted. He has been picking my pocket. As a pensioner I say: Get out!

Derek Foster, Nottingham, Notts

Just WHAT research was done, please have it handy to show the fraud squad.

John, Essex, UK

Cameron only moved fast after eading the papers the following day, he knew the game was up.

John, Essex, UK

Now we know why the country can no longer afford care for the elderly, we have to make sure there is always enough for all those self sacrificing MP's. It is good to know it's not being wasted on frivolous things like the poor and the sick.

I really despair for this country sometimes.

Terry, Newcastle, UK

Cameron acted quickly did you say? not quick enough more like it! The wiff of corruption is growing, and sad to say as a Tory I am disgusted at the Tory leadership and its inability to cash in on the labour incompetents and now faced with what can only be described as 'normal practice' for all in the take what you can elite club of Westminster, why is there not a hue and cry to clear out all off the corruption. Perhaps the reason is that because so many are tainted that the end result would be a lot of 'politicians' caught out. So be it, time for some serious housecleaning! I am ashamed of these pigs and their greed.

John Korn, North Bay, Canada

mary murray wishes she was living aboad because of the problems we have with parliamentarians I am sitting in an intetnet cafe in Peru readingTimes onLine Do not believe everything is better abroad At least we have laws in Uk which on the whole people trust and obey. In latin America nothing is secure .the laws are there to be broken all the time and people are dependent on the whim of people and how they are feeling at the time In other words nothing is secure or certain at least we have laws and institutions

It always seems to be people from working class backgrounds who are more interested in money and the other so called middle and upper are interested in SEX

caroline carr locke, edinburgh, scotland

Saddest in this scandal, is the moral damage done to Freddy and Henry who have been made beneficiaries of an unforgivable fraud on the public purse. Hearing George Gale MP, defending his chum made one's stomach churn! We are all of this world and it is not believable that Derek Conway was not other than fully aware that his payments to his sons while at University was not the right thing to do with public funds.

It is not right that anyway for a public servant to employ their relatives - this practice should be banned!

Aren, Midhurst, West Sussex

He should go now, and the whole matter should be referred to the police - it is theft. Politicians should not be above the law and should have to account for ALL expenses: employees in other walks of life have to (and rightly so).
What a shower of parliamentarians we have. If the Scottish parliament were disbanded tomorrow (or the "wee pretendy parliament" as Billy Connolly described it) would anyone notice? We haven't got second rate politicians - they're not even 10th rate. What sets them apart is their greed - nothing is too good for them and their families.
And then there are the "adminstrative errors" and "oversights" Since when was ignorance of the law defence?
The last commentator is right about Gorbals Mick - he and his wife are doing very well and she's not even elected. What surprises me is that he was!
Is it any surprise that 700 British people are leaving every day to live abroad - how I wish that I was one of them.

MM, Fort William, Highland

Mary Murray, Fort William, Highland

His career may be in ruins, I bet his pension is'nt, now if cameron really wanted to garner votes, he should have sacked him, another wasted opportunity.

paul, christchurch, uk

What does he or any back pocket MP care!
Any MP bent or not keeps their lucrative pension, just ask Henry Mcleish.

Ross, Ayr,

From the outset I should say that I do not think this "Honourable Gentleman" is the only one doing this. But he has been caught with his fingers, no his whole hand in the till and if nothing else as a signal to the other pigs that this will no longer be tolerated he must be prosecuted. It is only by showing them that they are not above the law that MP's will be forced to behave "Honorably". And a system of rigorous checking of all claims on the public purse by these these porcine persons must be put in place. And the current Mr Speaker ,surely the worst Speaker the house has known for a very long time, should be removed from office for blocking the last attempt to let a little light onto this very murky area.

FEF, Cheltenham, UK

There is no point in restoring the Whip to Conway in time for the next election, how can he canvass? Would you want the whiff across your threshold?

Honour is another land.

Terry Hawker, L'Absie, France

Employing family is a nonsense, this is not the first time this issue has been in the press. What rules and policing are in place for these muppets.

I have never understood why MP's are paid such a big allowance on top of an already obscene salary . Why can't they do their own research have they never heard of the internet!

Is it any wonder that the public do not trust politicansl when they line their pockets with the obvious loopholes that exist within the system.

MP's gladly award themselves big payrises but decline the masses more than 2.5% for the front line guys police, nurses, etc more front than brighton

Disgruntled Voter, London, UK

If he gets sent down, I hope he takes his loathsome offspring with him!

A Thorn, London,

I believe that the "crime" was reported by a BNP member who lives in this man's district, a Mr Michael Barnbrook, a retired policeman who stood against Conway in the last election. Perhaps the electorate now knows what to do next time?.

B J Deller, Marbella, Spain

There should now be a full audit of MP's expenses over the last six years to find out if there are other cases like this one.

MarkS, Leeds,

His two sons received large amounts of money illegally. The police should investigate them. If the MPs are above the law, his sons are not.

No ' ifs no buts' .

Joe, reading, uk

shame .shame shame, and they said we follow "non corrupt" behaviour patterns of libreal free democracy!

sadly looks like we shuldnt point fingers at others when the rest of 3 are pointing at u!

rohan, london, UK

I'm pleased to see that David Cameron has acted swiftly, Gordon Brown could learn a lesson from this.

Casper Slides, Bath, UK

It would be better for MPs, other public figures and the general public if the lines were more clearly drawn. There should be no room for doubt as to what is and isn't acceptable. I seem to remember John Birt at the BBC getting into trouble about employing his wife as his secretary, the point being (if I do remember correctly) that in fact she wasn 't qualified to be a secretary.

Adele Winston, Barnet, UK

Simply fraud.

Gordon Millar, Cambridge, UK

He'll end up in 'consultancy', like Tony Blair!

John, London,

It is high time to stop this practice and do as they do in the US where you are not allowed to employ family members.

It is all just a big con and allows these vastly overpaid politicians to futher line their pockets at our expense. As always the Labour party is the worst as they all believe they are above any constraints that are imposed on the rest of us.

D Case, Newquay,

Mr. Conway has, unwittingly, done the taxpayer an enormous service: By demonstrating that he can afford to squander the wage of two researchers it demonstrates that he didn't actually need those researchers.

By extension no MP needs as many staff as they have, so we can halve their allowances thus freeing up more public money for the important things like bailing out inept Banks and Defence Contractors when their ill-conceived get rich quick schemes come unstuck!

Mikey, Bromley, Kent

Giving money to his sons whilst getting nothing in return doesn't seem to have prevented Conway from doing what his constituency expected of him.

Surely this shows that the amounts of allowances and expenses that MPs have voted for themselves are excessive?

Bryan, Lancashire, UK

Myself and my husband thought it was relatively hard to put one daughter through 4 years of a french and german languages degree at Nottingham, the other daughter through a 3 year nursing degree and for them to graduate without debt. Of course it was hard I now realise, because we were also funding Freddy and Henry's university eduacation. I would like a full refund.

Julia Kinsey, Rotherham, South Yorkshire

Greed or sheer arrogance! Not only did he pay one son, he thought he could also get away with paying the other son. It seemed so easy to put one's hand in the public till.

What I do not understand is if he was found to have wrongly paid both sons a total of £72,000, he was asked to repay only £13,161. Sounds like a good deal for him. I think the right amount should be £72,000 plus interest should be returned to the public purse.

V Tan, London,

Career in ruins? That's what happens to people who steal, whether by theft or deception. Ordinary people also get put before the Courts. I look forward to this happening in respect of this individual.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

In any other profession the 'illegal' diversion of funds would lead to a criminal investigation, not a slap on the wrist and a request to pay just some of the money back.

Chris Gudgin, Nottingham,

It is so little money, 40,000 over three years, that Conway's son should easily be able to justify earning it. The Parliamentary Commissioner of Standards estimate the work was worth 26,839 which is very close. I do not think that the calculation of salaries is an exact science. If Cameron wants to crucify one of his own team over a difference of 30%, that does not say much for his ethical standards.

Richard Polley, Manchester,

'The practice of MPs employing members of their families was under question last night'?
I don't object to politicians employing trusted relatives; what I object to is them employing them fraudulently to do little or no work. It ought not to be difficult in the age of computer trails to prove that an employee has been engaged in active work - which is why Mr Conway's failure to do so is so revealing. A criminal investigation into whether he was systematically trying to defraud the expenses system to line his own pockets is surely called for here, and well done to Duncan Borrowman of the Lib Dems for requesting it. Roger Gale does himself a disservice by attempting to defend such conduct.

Terry Gilbert, South Norfolk,

The only career at end is the one that allows people like this is positions of trust to betray that trust in a massive way.
Not onlt did he allegedly pay his sons to do nothing worthy of such huge payments he also paid his wife an obscene monthly figure of around £3500, what exactly did she do to justify that amount of money.

Even police officers facing death every day do not earn that.
It`s disgusting and an urgent investigations is needed into ALL MP`s expense claims and payments.

keithw, Wirral, UK