The Tory MP Derek Conway was today suspended from the Commons for 10 days over the misuse of public money to employ his son, Freddie.

MPs also agreed, without a vote, that the MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup should refund up to £13,161 of the £43,000 that he had paid his student son in salary and bonuses.

Mr Conway was not in the chamber during the brief debate on his actions. He was stripped of the Tory whip - effectively, expelled from the party - on Tuesday, after the Standards and Privileges Committee decided that he had misused parliamentary funds by paying an annual £11,773 salary, plus bonuses totalling more than £10,000, to his younger son Freddie while he was a full-time student in Newcastle.

He announced yesterday that he was standing down from Parliament after embroiling the Conservative Party in a sleaze row.

He has been under renewed fire today after it emerged that one of his son’s friends Michel Pratte had also been on his payroll, and after photos were published of his sons Freddie and Henry partying.

Leaving his central London mansion flat, the MP pointed out that Mr Pratte was not a relative.

He also defended his sons, saying: “Young people will be young people”. He added: “They have a right to a social life.”

The MP now faces a possible police inquiry and fresh sleaze investigations into complaints about payments made to his other son, Henry.

Scotland Yard has confirmed that it has received a letter from Duncan Borrowman, the Liberal Democrat challenger for the MP’s parliamentary seat, asking officers to examine whether a fraud had been committed.

Opening today's brief debate on the damning Standards and Privileges Committee report into Mr Conway's actions, Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, said that it was a “highly regrettable” affair which fell below the standards expected by the public.

The committee had concluded that there had been a “failure to meet the standards expected and that the committee regarded the conduct as a serious breach of the rules”, she said, urging MPs to support the recommended punishment.

Sir George Young, the Standards committee chairman, told the House that allegations of misuse of MPs’ allowances were “damaging” to Parliament’s reputation.

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