John Purvis

John Purvis (born July 6, 1938 in St Andrews) is a British politician, and a Member of the European Parliament for Scotland for the Conservative Party.

His first session in the European Parliament was from 1979 to 1984, for the Mid-Scotland and Fife seat. He returned to the Parliament in 1999 on the Conservative Party's Scotland list, and was re-elected in the 2004 European Parliament elections.

Purvis is currently in the middle of some hot questioning by his Conservative Party colleagues after it was claimed he had paid staff from his parliamentary office through a company of which he was a partner. The latest claim comes at a time when the Conservatives' Chairman Caroline Spelman is being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for paying her children's nanny from her parliamentary allowance also, the Conservatives' Leader in Brussels, Giles Chichester after he paid a company of which he is a paid director for the sum of £445,000 for alleged secretarial and office work it also comes when the Tories' Chief Whip in the EU Parliament, Den Dover, was forced to resign after he paid his wife and daughter £750,000 over 9 years also for alleged secretarial and office work. However, Chichester, Dover & Purvis claim they did not know about new enforced EU Parliamentary rules prohibiting the channeling of parliamentary funds through any institution of which any MEP was a member or associate. Purvis made an enquiry to clarify whether or not he was in breach of regulations on conflict of interest in January 2007 and has, to this date, received no confirmation that he is. [The Tayside Courier [http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2008/06/09/newsstory11477666t0.asp Expenses row MEP defends payments] Accessed June 2008] [BBC [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7441005.stm MEP may have 'breached rules'] June 6, 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.scottishtorymeps.org.uk Official website]
* [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public/geoSearch/view.do?country=GB&partNumber=1&zone=Scotland&language=EN&id=729 Profile on European Parliament website]