Tory sleaze, yet again

The spectacular hypocrisy of the Eurosceptics - both Tory and UKIP ones - was revealed yet again with the disgrace of former Tory chief whip Den Dover MEP.

Eurosceptics often claim loudly that they will "clean out" Brussels, to which they attribute all manner of evils, yet they themselves keep on getting caught out for financial improprieties.

The belated removal of Den Dover (not Ben Dover as some papers wrongly called him) is only the latest twist. Earlier this year, the Tory MEPs lost both their leader (Giles Chichester MEP) and their chief whip following allegations about breaking the rules on claiming expenses.

At the time, Cameron sent his financial troubleshooter Hugh Thomas to investigate. He can't have investigated very far, as it's only now that firm action as been taken against Dover following the European Parliament's own investigation. What they found was overlooked by Cameron's man. Is this because some of the money found its way into Conservative party coffers?

All this comes on top of UKIP, who have seen no less than a quarter of the MEPs they elected in 2004 get into trouble, one (Ashley Mote) even serving time in jail.

If UKIP and the Conservatives had followed Labour's example and had their accounts reviewed annually by an external independent auditor, then maybe none of this would have happened.