text: The Tories' chief whip in the European parliament became the latest Conservative to lose his job in the wake of the EU expenses row today, as David Cameron announced that he was sending a new sleazebuster to Brussels.
  Den Dover was forced out of office less than 24 hours after Giles Chichester, the MEP for South West England and Gibraltar, quit as chairman of the Tory delegation in the parliament.
  The new acting leader of the Tories' MEPs, Philip Bushill-Matthews, announced that he was appointing South East MEP Richard Ashworth to replace Dover.
  Bushill-Matthews said: "The office of chief whip to the Conservative MEP delegation is in the gift of the leader of the delegation, and is a personal appointment. As such it automatically lapses on the departure of the leader.
  "I have decided, in my capacity as acting leader, to appoint Richard Ashworth MEP to assume the chief whip responsibilities pro tem, in succession to Den Dover MEP, with immediate effect."
  A Tory spokesman in Brussels insisted that Dover's removal as chief whip was not connected to concerns about his expenses.
  "It's simply that it's the prerogative of the new leader to appoint his own chief whip," said the spokesman.
  Dover has attracted controversy over reports that he had paid his wife and daughter £750,000 through an outside company for secretarial and support services over nine years.
  He told BBC News yesterday that he had done nothing wrong.
  "I am totally within the rules and regulations of the European parliament. I put that in writing. I am not a director, have no shareholdings, have no payments from any outside company," he said.
  Asked if it looked "dodgy" to voters, he replied: "It may do, but I put it to you that there are an awful lot of MPs and MEPs who are employing their own family members."
  As Dover's departure as chief whip was made public, Cameron announced that Hugh Thomas, who was appointed in March as the Conservative party's head of compliance, will visit the European parliament next week to ensure that the finances of the party's 28-strong group of MEPs are in good order.
  Chichester – the son of the yachtsman Sir Francis Chichester - had admitted breaking parliamentary rules by channelling parliamentary allowances of up to £445,000 through a family firm of which he is a director.
  Cameron had put pressure on Chichester - who had been appointed by him three months ago to overhaul MEPs' expenses following the Derek Conway scandal - by insisting he deliver his full accounts to him for scrutiny by Conservative Central Office in London.
  Today the Tory leader was swift in appointing a new sleazebuster. In a statement he said: "Hugh Thomas has been tasked by me to do all that we can to reinforce the clear message I have sent on the issue of expenses.
  "I have said very clearly that MEPs - like MPs - must meet the highest possible standards with accountability and transparency.
  "MEPs do of course report to their own separate authorities in the European parliament. But anyone who flies under the Conservative banner carries a wider responsibility to the reputation of the party."
  While in Brussels Thomas has been asked to reinforce the existing allowance guidelines and establish arrangements for the regular publication of a breakdown of MEPs' expenses. Once he completes his tasks Thomas will report back to Cameron.
  Current "guidelines" for Tory MEPs on the use of their allowances were only introduced in April, setting out principles of high public standards and obliging members for the first time to set out full details of whom they pay as staff and who acts as the paying agent or "service provider".
  The employment of family members must be set out and all expenses accounts must be submitted for approval to an independent, professionally qualified accountant.
  Labour MEPs already do the same, but controversy has been raging for months over resistance by European parliament authorities to the introduction of a general independent audit on all 785 MEPs as a matter of routine - something demanded again today by Liberal Democrat MEP Chris Davies.
  There is also strong resistance among authorities and many MEPs to the publication of the full contents of a secret audit report leaked by Davies in February, which outlined wholesale abuses of the current expenses regime.
  But the scandal over Chichester's breach of the rules may trigger a rethink in the interests of not worsening the European parliament's "gravy train" image.