Controversy over £1,500 payment from rail chief

A payment of £1,500 to Steve Norris for advising the chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority was branded a "scandalous waste of taxpayers' money" today.

Richard Bowker, the country's most senior rail chief, also came under fire for authorising the payment in return for a two-hour briefing from Mr Norris. Mr Bowker had asked Mr Norris for advice on how to deal with a grilling by MPs on the public accounts committee.

Mr Norris, a former transport minister, was hired in his other professional capacity as a senior partner in the transport consultancy Park Place Communications.

But the payment today raised fresh questions about conflicts of interests facing the Tory candidate. Mr Norris is paid £100,000 a year for his two-daya-week job as chairman of Jarvis, the rail engineering company which last week admitted joint liability for the Potters Bar train crash.

Gerry Steinberg, Labour MP and public accounts committee member, said of the latest payment to Mr Norris: "It's a scandalous waster of taxpayers' money. Norris is one of the people who got the industry into the mess it is in."

Mr Norris said he was mystified by the row. He said: "It doesn't compromise me in any way."