Tory MP puts mistress on Commons payroll

[T_i_B]

Clearly a man who's learned nothing from what happened to his party in the 1990's.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/12/nmp112.xml

James Gray, the Conservative MP who cheated on his wife while she was fighting cancer, has put his former mistress on the public payroll by employing her as his diary secretary.

Philippa Mayo is taking over a role previously undertaken by Sarah Gray, who divorced Mr Gray in January. Mrs Gray said she was "surprised" to hear that the MP had replaced her with Mrs Mayo not only in his home but also at work, while a close friend described the move as "another insensitive blow".

The appointment has upset many party members in Mr Gray's North Wiltshire constituency, who twice tried to deselect him as an MP after he admitted in 2006 that he had a 19-month affair with Mrs Mayo, 45, while his 52-year-old wife was being treated for breast cancer.

It will also cause exasperation at Conservative Central Office, which has urged MPs not to give jobs to family members in the wake of the Derek Conway affair. Revelations about Tory MP Mr Conway employing several members of his family led to an urgent review of parliamentary rules on employing spouses and other family members.