CONSERVATIVE MEPs have channelled up to £100,000 a year in parliamentary allowances to spouses and offspring, according to leaked documents.

It is the first time that the sums paid by MEPs to their families have been made public. There is no requirement in Brussels to declare who you are employing or how much you are paying them.

The leak comes a month ahead of a deadline imposed by David Cameron, the Conservative leader, on his MEPs to disclose the names and salaries of their staff in an effort to restore public confidence.

Den Dover, now the Conservative chief whip and MEP for northwest England, paid £8,143 a month in 2002 to MP Holdings Ltd, according to the leak.

His wife Kathleen and daughter Amanda were appointed directors of the company in 1991 and 1999 respectively.

According to a recent report, Dover said he employed his wife to manage all his secretarial services. He also admitted employing his daughter as a part-time assistant. He said this required them to work unsociable hours in Brussels, Strasbourg and northwest England. However, their names do not appear on the door of the assistants’ office in Brussels.

When asked last week whether he still employed his family through MP Holdings, Dover refused to answer and left his office abruptly, saying he had to go to “an industry committee”.

In 2002, Giles Chichester, the current leader of the Tory delegation, and MEP for southwest England, paid £3,276 a month from his assistant’s allowance to his family company – Francis Chichester Ltd. It sells pocket books and maps of London.

Chichester said that while he paid his wife Virginia at the time through the company, he now employs her directly.

He admitted he still pays the company – of which he and his wife remain directors – as a “service provider” for “general support in my parliamentary and political work”.

“Its primary business is to publish pocket maps and guides of London. But it provides me with services for my parliamentary work,” he said. He declined to specify what kind of service a map shop could provide him as an MEP, saying: “I don’t think I need to.”

Chichester also declined to reveal the sums he now pays to the company. “I could but I am not prepared to because I think it is an infringement on privacy . . . and I can certainly tell you it’s within the rules of the European parliament. I’m surprised you don’t have better things to report about the European parliament. It’s disappointing,” he added.

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