SHAMED CONWAY'S pounds 13K EXTRA EARNER; Fury as he keeps Commons role.

Byline: By JAMES LYONS, Political Correspondent

DISGRACED Tory MP Derek Conway is still pocketing an extra pounds 13,000 a year from a top Commons job.

The MP, who is serving a 10-day ban over the "jobs for his boys" scandal, gets the cash for chairing Parliamentary committees.

But Speaker Michael Martin, who runs the Commons, is under mounting pressure to sack him from the panel of chairmen.

Mr Conway was stripped of the Tory whip, suspended and forced to stand down at the next election after a sleaze probe found he had paid his sons Freddie and Henry pounds 82,000 of taxpayers' cash.

The Standards and Privileges Committee could find no evidence that Freddie, 22, did any work in return for the pounds 50,000 he was paid as a Commons researcher. Fellow MPs are shocked that Mr Conway has clung on to the prestigious committees job.

Labour's Alan Simpson said: "Things like the chairmen's panel are supposed to protect the rules of Parliament.

"It seems to me that would have been one of the things I would have expected him to stand down from immediately or to be stood down from.

"If these offences had been committed in the armed forces he would have been demoted to the ranks." Mr Conway, who gets over pounds 60,000 a year as an MP, could earn an extra pounds 40,000 from chairing committees before he stands down at the next election, expected in 2010.

Labour backbencher Dr Ian Gibson said the Commons Standards and Privileges Committee should have considered stripping Mr Conway of the post when they suspended him.

He added: "It seems to me it is a question that should be asked again."

Lib Dem MP Norman Baker asked why Mr Conway had not been sacked.

Speaker Mr Martin set up a committee to examine MPs' pay and perks after revelations of widespread abuses.

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PAYDAY: Derek Conway