OTTAWA—Prime Minister Stephen Harper, clearly concerned over the damage to the Conservative party’s reputation for fiscal responsibility, now says he fired his former chief of staff Nigel Wright.

Harper told a radio interviewer in a conversation that aired Monday he took decisive action over Wright’s cheque to defray Sen. Mike Duffy’s inappropriate expenses.

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“I had a chief of staff who made an inappropriate payment to Mr. Duffy — he was dismissed,” said Harper.

It is a marked change from Harper’s public statement May 19 that he accepted Wright’s resignation with “great regret.” At that time, the government was trying to tough out the unfolding expenses scandal.

Initially, Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall said Wright “acted alone” with Harper telling the Commons Wright accepted “sole responsibility” for the move. The prime minister insisted he had not been consulted on it and wouldn’t have approved it.

Last Wednesday, for the first time, Harper admitted in the Commons that Wright had consulted with “a few people” in his office but that the prime minister wasn’t one of them.

On Friday, Harper told Toronto’s John Tory he had “every right to know” about the deal to cover Duffy’s expenses with a personal cheque from Wright, and that he should have been consulted.

But in the interview aired Monday with Halifax radio host and former Canadian Alliance candidate Jordi Morgan, Harper’s story appeared to change again.

Monday’s statement that Wright was “dismissed” is also at odds with Harper’s statement in a third interview recorded on Friday that Wright “stepped down.”

In that interview with radio host and former Saskatchewan Progressive Conservative MP John Gormley, Harper said Wright’s own statements make clear “that he was entirely responsible for these actions.

“These were his decisions executed by him with his money. There is absolutely no reason to suggest anyone else, certainly anybody under him is responsible in any way. Mr. Wright is entirely responsible for these actions and took responsibility for it by stepping down.”

Although Harper said Wright made the statements “publicly in July — it was on the record, who he told” — he was apparently referring to a summary by the RCMP in a July affidavit of emails that Wright had turned over.

Wright has not spoken publicly since telling a CTV reporter last spring he would co-operate with an ethics investigation that was then superceded by the RCMP probe.

Wright stepped down in May only several days after CTV reported he covered Duffy’s expenses with a personal cheque, saying he accepted “sole responsibility.”

Harper issued a statement at the same time: “It is with great regret that I have accepted the resignation of Nigel Wright as my Chief of Staff. I accept that Nigel believed he was acting in the public interest, but I understand the decision he has taken to resign.”

Harper said on Monday it is time for “disciplinary action.”

He said the Senate “and the rest of the government, we have been very, very patient as these senators have been audited and all of the facts have been looked into.”

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“I think the fact of the matter is, I know this is the view of a majority of Conservative senators and I think it’s the view of all Conservatives and certainly all Canadians that when you’ve taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in inappropriate expenses — and that is clear — that there is appropriate sanction on your job.”

He said the majority of Conservative senators supported suspending the senators without pay, and “Liberal senators” were trying to delay the vote. At least two Conservative senators — Hugh Segal and Don Plett — have publicly opposed their suspensions without pay.

In addition, it emerged on the weekend that Sen. Claude Carignan, Harper’s government leader in the senate, was considering whether a one-size-fits-all punishment was appropriate for the three, whose alleged wrongdoings are all slightly different.

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