No less than sixteen out of twenty seven Conservative Party Members of the European Parliament employ their wives or relatives at the taxpayers’ expense, it has emerged.

Four of the party’s MEPs paid their wives salaries of £30,000 to £40,000. Another twelve employed their partner or family member on salaries ranging from less than £10,000 to £30,000.

Former Tory MEP Chief Whip Den Dover was caught out last year for claiming £750,000 in staff and office allowances to the family-owned firm HP Holdings, which was run by his wife and daughter.

Those earning the most are: North-West MEP David Sumberg’s wife Carolyn, North West MEP Sir Robert Atkins’s wife Lady Dulcie, London MEP Charles Tannock’s wife Silvia Janicinova and South East MEP Nirj Deva’s wife Indra.

Mr Tannock was reimbursed £15,228 in daily allowance payments, designed to cover accommodation and subsistence in Brussels. He spent 60.5 days in the city over the period. The North East’s Mr Callanan claimed the highest sum for travel to Brussels — about £18,000.

North West Tory MEP Sajjad Karim claimed £18,356, the most on UK travel and office expenses. Mr Karim has recently hosted an anti-BNP conference which he publicised by saying that as “Britain’s first Muslim MEP” he was interested in stopping this party gaining Euro seats.

The twelve who pay family members smaller salaries are: Richard Ashworth, John Bowis, Philip Bushill-Matthews, Martin Callanan, Giles Chichester, Malcolm Harbour, Chris Heaton-Harris, Roger Helmer, Syed Kamall, Timothy Kirkhope, Neil Parish and Geoffrey Van Orden.

East of England MEP Christopher Beazley, who has persistently challenged his party leader’s demands for openness, refused to make a disclosure.

A compulsory register set up by House of Commons officials revealed that 61 of 193 Tory MPs employed family members in their offices.

The register was established after it was revealed that Conservative MP Derek Conway had paid his son Henry as an assistant while he was a full-time student at Newcastle University.

South West MEP Tory Giles Chichester stood down as leader of the Tories last year following claims that he broke expenses rules by paying thousands in staff allowances to a firm of which he was a paid director.

A report by think tank Open Europe also shows that between September and December, 26 of the Tory MEPs claimed an average of £36,303 on all travel, office expenses and allowances.