Barry Legg is the new chief executive and chief of staff

A senior Conservative backbencher is calling on Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith to sack the party's chief executive Barry Legg.

Derek Conway's call follows BBC Radio 4's Today Programme revelations about scandals involving Mr Legg.

As a leading Westminster councillor, he played a key part in a decision, later condemned by a public inquiry commissioned by the council, to move homeless families into two London tower blocks known to be riddled with asbestos.

As company secretary of major food company Hillsdown Holdings, Mr Legg was also involved in a decision to remove an �18m surplus from a pension fund, which a High Court judgment described as unjust and unauthorised.

The company was ordered to repay the money with interest.

Mr Legg told Today he had had been over-ruled after trying to persuade his company to give pensioners some of the surplus and had no recollection of the council decision.

Mr Conway wants Mr Legg sacked

News of Mr Legg's past comes ahead of the AGM of the Conservative Party board, where approving Mr Legg's appointment will be discussed.

When Mr Duncan Smith sacked moderniser Mark MacGregor as chief executive and appointed Eurosceptic Mr Legg in his place it caused widespread discontent in the Conservative Party and open dissent from leading backbenchers, including Michael Portillo.

But traditionalists were delighted.

The MP for Milton Keynes South West from 1992 to 1997, Mr Legg was one of Mr Duncan Smith's fellow Maastricht rebels in the early 1990s, published right-wing pamphlets about tax and social security and backed John Redwood's 1995 leadership challenge against John Major.

'Take action'

Tory MP Mr Conway was critical when Mr MacGregor was dismissed as party chief executive.

He said he was "horrified" by the Today programme's dossier on Mr Legg.

"I think when these matters are put to the board of the party and to the leader of the party, if he doesn't offer his resignation then they should take direct action themselves...

"I think it's a wrong appointment. I think he (Iain Duncan Smith) allowed friendship to cloud his judgement frankly.

"And I think that's wrong ... as long as Barry Legg is Chief Executive of the Conservative party it isn't going to go away and hide."

Minutes of a meeting in February 1989 show Mr Legg chairing the meeting where the tower blocks decision was made.

'Proposals rejected'

In a letter to Today, Mr Legg said he had not seen the report into the tower block affair, which was produced after he left the council.

"I am afraid that 14 years on, I have no recollection of whether I chaired a meeting of the chairmen's committee in February 1989, nor of what may have been discussed," said Mr Legg.

On the pensions affair, he said he tried to argue for some of the surplus to be paid to pensioners, but that the proposals were rejected by Hillsdown.

Mr Legg added: "As both the ombudsman and the judge made clear, the trustees were right to be seeking to secure a greater proportion of the surplus for scheme members than the company was willing to offer."

Mr Legg was secretary of the company at the time.

A Tory spokesman said: "The allegations are without foundation. He does not recall chairing the (council committee) meeting. He was not chairman of housing. He does not believe he would put anyone deliberately at risk."