Scottish Tory MEP John Purvis has been cleared of any wrongdoing over his expenses following a revelation that he was using a firm in which he has an interest to claim parliamentary allowances.

Scottish Tory MEP John Purvis has been cleared of any wrongdoing over his expenses following a revelation that he was using a firm in which he has an interest to claim parliamentary allowances.

Mr Purvis, an MEP since 1999, has been paying staff allowances of up to £120,000 per annum through a consultancy, Purvis & Co, of which he is a partner.

He was among a number of Conservative MEPs who were recently accused in the media of abusing the European Parliament's expenses system.

Mr Purvis said he had asked the European Parliament for clarification "as far back as January 2007" on his staffing arrangements, but had not received a response.

He is entitled to receive profits from the consultancy firm, based at the sprawling farming estate where he lives in St Andrews, but did not believe he had done anything wrong.

"I immediately supplied the parliament with all the documentation requested, and the secretary-general has now formally acknowledged that all the secretarial allowances were exclusively for the provision of parliamentary assistance and that not a single euro has gone to the personal benefit of myself or my family," said Mr Purvis yesterday.

In the midst of the Conservative expenses scandal, Giles Chichester MEP resigned as Conservative group leader in Brussels over his own payments after it was revealed how he had channelled £445,000 of parliamentary funds through a family firm.

The disclosure caused particular embarrassment at Conservative headquarters because Mr Chichester had been tasked by David Cameron to ensure Tory MEP expenses were beyond reproach.

Mr Cameron then send Hugh Thomas, the party's head of compliance, to Brussels to scrutinise MEPs' expenses, which can be worth up to £280,000 per year a member.

A spokesperson for the European Parliament said it does not comment on investigations into individual MEPS.