Scots Tory John Purvis has become the latest MEP to admit he may have been breaking rules on expenses.

Scots Tory John Purvis has become the latest MEP to admit he may have been breaking rules on expenses.

Following the resignation of the Tory group leader at Brussels, Giles Chichester, for using his expenses to pay £500,000 for services to a company of which he was a director, two other Tory MEPs have now admitted doing the same.

One was Den Dover, who paid out £750,000 to a company run by his wife and daughter. Last night it emerged that another involved in the practice was John Purvis, the low-profile Scottish MEP, who admitted that he too was paying money out to a company of which he was a partner.

Mr Purvis denied that he had knowingly done anything wrong and claimed that he had been let down by the authorities at the European Parliament who had failed to respond to his requests for clarification of the rules.

The practice of the MEP in paying up to £120,000 this year to a "service provider" named Purvis & Company, in which he admits he is a partner, was revealed by Westminster blogster Guido Fawkes, who has been influential in unmasking expenses scandals in Brussels. The website has reproduced the relevant aspects of the MEP's declaration of interests.

A statement was issued by a press spokesman for Mr Purvis last night, stating: "I have asked the Brussels officials Quaestors to investigate the reason that I did not receive clarification from the European Parliament about my arrangements for paying staff, even though I specifically asked for it as far back as January 2007. I will not be commenting further until they get back to me."