Ex-wife and daughter work for MP Spink (From Echo)

Ex-wife and daughter work for MP Spink

11:19am Friday 1st February 2008 in News By Christine Sexton

A SOUTH Essex MP has revealed he still employs his ex-wife, who works as his secretary from her home in Dorset.

However, Castle Point MP Bob Spink will not say how much taxpayers' money he pays former wife Janet for her work. The pair divorced in 2002.

Dr Spink also employs his daughter, Charlotte, from south London, in an administrative post.

The father-of-four volunteered the information in the wake of public debate stirred up by the suspension of Derek Conway, MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup.

Mr Conway has been accused of misusing public money to employ his son, Freddie, paying him more than £43,000 without being able to prove what work the university student has actually done.

Calling for an independent body to deal with such issues to avoid public confusion, Dr Spink said he had gone to great lengths to ensure all his staffing arrangements were above board and legitimate.

He said: "I employ my daughter, who is in her twenties, and paid her £4,400 this financial year, as a temporary/casual em-ployee.

"She does work compiling address databases for me to correspond with constituents, particularly petitioners, assisting with contributions in Parliament and local publicity, and compiling and reporting to me on local printed media reports.

"I also continue to employ my ex-wife. We have been divorced for some years. She is a professionally qualified secretary and PA."

However, Dr Spink said he would not reveal what he paid his wife from the public purse.

He said: "I am going to make a speech calling for these matters to be made clear for the public.

"The public has every right to know about these things - but Jan isn't interested in having her salary made public.

"She is my most senior staff member and she deals with diary and bulk correspondence work, as well as the normal research and office work. I became an MP in 1992 expressly on the basis that I continued to employ her.

"When we were divorced and Jan moved to Dorset, I got specific clearance from the Fees Office for her continued employment, in Dorset. This arrangement is widely known in my constituency."

Janet Spink, who lives in Wimborne, Dorset - some 150 miles away from Castle Point - said she had no concerns about working with her former husband.

She said: "I trained as a secretary. I am qualified to do the job and have been doing it for a long time.

"I work from home via the internet, as many people do these days. The amount of work I do varies, but I have no need to go to the Commons."

She added: "Bob has a secretary who deals with any constituents' problems."