Mat Bowles

Dude, you have a DW account, or you can use OpenID, which is what the protocol was designed for. And at the top of every post is a link to the format=light option so you can turn my style off if you want.

At the time it happened (and I just found the first link I could find to it as a general story to give more background) he struggled to justify it. If she were being paid freelance rates for occasional work, that should be justifiable perhaps, but I don't know any other MPs that feel the need to employ a dedicated PR.

He represents a rural poor seat, which is pretty safe—his constituents were not impressed by it, regardless of whether, post facto, it could be justified. Nepotism with public funds isn't a popular activity, and that's what it looked like. Adrian, the neighbouring MP, published all his staffing details on his website as soon as he'd got one—he employs his wife, with a justifiable, full time job, for which she's almost certainly under paid.

The first we knew about Steen paying Xanthe was when there was an investigation into MPs employing family members for spurious jobs. Perception is it was make work, and he never did really justify it to the satisfaction of constituents.