More Tory sleaze and hypocrisy as Iain Dale defends the not so 'honourable' gentleman...

Another day, another shock revelation in the unfolding scandal of disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway...Thursday's Daily Mail claims it has uncovered secret documents which show that a close friend of one of Mr Conway's sons was also on the MP's payroll - as well as both his sons and his wife.

A couple of days ago when the story first broke, Tory blogger Iain Dale declined to comment on the plight of his friend Derek Conway.

Fair enough. But today, on news that the 'honourable gentleman' is to step down at the next General Election (before he can be deselected), Iain Dale has lambasted 'the baying mob' who attacked Derek Conway.

Iain says:

'Whatever Derek did or did not do he did not deserve some of the comments that have been thrown his way...'

Poppycock.

Let's be clear what Mr Conway did: he wrongly dipped into the public purse to pay his son more than £40,000 in taxpayer's cash.

The new allegations which have emerged regarding thousands of pounds in taxpayers cash handed to his other son, payments to his wife and now cash for a close friend of one of his sons, all warrant further investigation.

(By the way, I totally condemn the Mail's disgraceful fixation on the alleged sexual orientation of any of those involved. It's totally irrelevant to the core issue of misuse of public funds).

For Iain Dale to portray Derek Conway as a victim of a baying mob demonstrates that he is allowing his judgement to be seriously clouded by his friendship.

There's more than a touch of hypocrisy in Iain Dale's whinge about 'the baying mob'.

Only a few days ago, Iain was quite happy to personally lead 'the baying mob' attacking Peter Hain for late reporting of private donations to fund an internal Labour Party election.