MPs suspend Conway from Commons
MPs have voted to suspend Derek Conway for 10 days and order him to return £13,161 of the money he paid his son.
The Tory MP has already been censured for overpaying Freddie's parliamentary allowances and has apologised to MPs.
The MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup has had his party's whip withdrawn and says he will not fight the next election.
The Commons commission's Nick Harvey MP said he opposed a full ban on employing relatives, but said that it should have to declared publicly in future.
At the moment there are no rules against employing relatives paid for out of an MPs' allowances, and there is no requirement for any such link to be declared.
'Astonished'
Conservative MP Sir George Young, chairman of the Commons standards and privileges committee, praised Mr Conway's prompt admission of wrongdoing over the amount paid to his son.
Sir George said the committee was "frankly astonished that after three years and a substantial amount of expenditure there was no independent evidence of his (Freddie Conway's) output or apparently anyone outside the family who had seen him working".
Official guidelines suggested Freddie Conway should have been paid a basic salary of £16,640, based on his age and experience, but Mr Conway had disregarded this and paid him the "substantially higher" figure of £25,970, said Sir George.
Sir George, who told MPs that he also employed a member of his family, hit back at criticisms that the Commons authorities had not come down hard enough on Mr Conway.
"I reject any suggestion that this committee is either a kangaroo court or a gentleman's club. Our procedures are fair and transparent and our judgements can have serious and far reaching consequences for those who breach the rules."
'Reputation'
He said the committee had decided not to report Mr Conway's actions to the police and the question of whether MPs should be allowed to employ family members was a "debate for another day".
Shadow Commons leader Theresa May said Mr Conway's suspension was needed in order to protect the reputation of the Commons.
She reminded MPs that "in all that we do we carry not just our own reputation but the reputation of this House".
Simon Hughes, for the Liberal Democrats, also said he supported the call for Mr Conway's suspension.
He said MPs should be banned from employing more than one family member and that they should be recruited openly and paid the "going rate".
And he called for an annual "spot check" of randomly selected MPs' finances and a limit of £50 a month placed on the amount they could claim in expenses without providing receipts.
He also called for equal pension rights for "registered partners" of MPs as well as spouses.
'Distraction'
Prime Minister Gordon Brown said earlier there should be greater transparency over MPs' expenses - but said the Commons authorities should decide how to achieve it.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw had earlier told Sky News: "I have never understood, for the life of me, why MPs are not required to say who they employ."
Mr Conway said on Wednesday he had decided it was "now time to step down" to prevent further damage to his party.
He said he did not wish his "personal circumstances to be a distraction" from David Cameron's leadership.
Mr Conway has already apologised unreservedly to MPs for "administrative shortcomings and the misjudgements" he made over the employment of his younger son Freddie while he was a full-time student in Newcastle.
He also faces a possible police inquiry and a further probe into complaints about his other son, Henry.
Scotland Yard has confirmed it has received a letter from Duncan Borrowman, the Lib Dem rival for Mr Conway's seat, asking officers to examine whether a fraud has been committed, although the BBC understands they are unlikely to begin an investigation at this stage.
Mr Cameron told the BBC on Wednesday he supported calls for greater transparency on who is employed by MPs.
He said: "All MPs, if asked questions about who they employ in their offices, should give straightforward, clear and transparent answers."
The Liberal Democrats said on Wednesday they think the names of those employed on the public payroll by MPs should become part of parliamentary disclosure.
There is nothing to stop MPs employing members of their families and it is thought that more than 40 do.
