An MP who sits on the Commons anti-sleaze committee said the punishment handed out to the Tory MP who paid his son tens of thousands of pounds of public money while he was studying was justified.

The Commons standards watchdog said Tory MP Derek Conway paid his son too much from parliamentary allowances.

The Old Bexley and Sidcup MP paid his son Freddie to work part time as a researcher while he was studying at Newcastle University.

Standards and Privileges Committee MPs said there was "no record" of what work he had done and said the £1,000-plus a month he was paid was too high.

The student was paid more than £40,000 for his three-year employment period.

The committee said he should pay back up to £13,161 of the amount paid to his son from his Parliamentary allowances and be suspended from the House of Commons for 10 days.

Skipton MP David Curry, who sits on the committee said: "We talked and talked about it and came to a consensual verdict. It is a very severe sanction it has to be said.

"It was always possible this would bring his career to an end. When this sort of thing happens it is a very public way of reprimanding someone and apologising to the Commons is not easy.

"We felt in these circumstances it was the right sanction. It demonstrates that the committee works. It is composed of fairly senior MPs and we take a balanced view and discussed this matter to exhaustion."

There have also been questions over his employment of his elder son Henry Conway.

This week Tory leader David Cameron withdrew the whip from Mr Conway, who last night said he would not be standing at the next general election.