Sky’s Jon Craig is reporting that Labour’s Sir Stuart Bell is gearing up to table a motion to expel Eric Illsley. Over a thousand people have signed the petition calling on the disgraced Barnsley MP to fall on his sword, and the PM and Ed Miliband have both said his position is untenable.

Is Guido still allowed to use cross hairs?

UPDATE: It seems Sir Stuart is attempting some sort of expenses penance:

“If this was received by unauthorised means, it is disgraceful that a national newspaper should stoop so low as to buy information which will be in the public domain in July. It undermines the very basis of our democracy and is against all the rules of fair play.”

A very different tune today compared to the dark days of May 2009.

President Obama when campaigning said…

“If they bring a knife to a fight, we bring a gun.”

The Sunlight Centre have launched a petition to gently encourage Eric Illsley to quit. Guido thinks it would be quite good fun to hand deliver the names to Illsley’s house on Renfrew Road, Kennington that got him into so much trouble. Or maybe it will be to one of Her Majesty’s prisons. In all seriousness do help put the pressure on by signing here.

UPDATE: Ed Miliband says Illsley should quit as an MP as he cannot “credibly” represent his constituents. Andrew Sparrow reports that the Labour Party is moving to expel the guilty trougher from the House. Keep the pressure up, keep signing.

A good day for justice it seems. Edward Woollard who was revealed as the infamous thug who threw a fire extinguisher off the roof off CCHQ, narrowly avoiding killing a copper, has been sent down for 2 years and 8 months for violent disorder. Just long enough to do an Open University course.  The judge said the heavy sentence against Wollard is warning to other protesters not to ‘cross the line’.

Unless Eric Illsley is sentenced to more than twelve months in jail he can technically remain an MP and we would be paying his salary while he is in jail. The Labour Party have already kicked him out, but that is not good enough. Illsley has admitted stealing from the very people he was elected to defend and represent. If he has any semblance of public duty left he should take the Chiltern Hundreds job and trigger a by-election immediately.

Once again Labour’s judgement is called into question. How did they even let this man stand as one of their candidates at the last election? At least Milband didn’t put him on the front-bench like Phil Woolas, but that didn’t stop the photo-ops still displayed proudly on the “independent” MP’s website:

If Illsley won’t walk, the House must move immediately to expel him.

Sitting Labour MP Eric Illsley has pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud. He was already expelled by Labour and was technically an independent. The LibDems and Tories are tied in his Barnsley constituency for second place, by six votes:

1. Labour: 17487 (47.26%)
2. Liberal Democrat: 6394 (17.28%)
3. Conservative: 6388 (17.26%)

How many more by-elections will there be this year….

UPDATE: PA reports:

“His barrister William Coker QC said his client admitted wrongly claiming a revised sum of about £14,500. The claims were made for council tax, telephone usage, service charges and maintenance, and insurance and repairs at his second home in Renfrew Road, Kennington, south London. In a five-minute hearing, the disgraced MP sat in the dock rubbing his face and frowning. He spoke only to confirm his pleas, saying ‘guilty’ to the three charges.”

After months of denial, is conviction politician Illsley now eyeing up a similar reduction in sentence granted to David Chaytor on Friday?

UPDATE II: Sentencing in around a month.

Anyone who thinks the Tories are actually running a proper campaign in Oldham might want to take a look at the briefing note that was handed to volunteers when they arrived in the constituency just yesterday:

No wonder Dave could barely remember his name. If the Tories come second after such a half-hearted campaign, there are going to be serious questions asked of their leader’s judgement, specifically why he did not throw down the gauntlet and properly contest the seat. Dave has probably done enough to cover his back by visiting and there is a visible campaign going on, but it’s nothing like the by-election slogs, of varying success, when the Tories were in opposition. Instead they are left moaning to Guido about a distinct lack of “money, leaflets, polling and staff”.

President Obama kills the Special Relationship:

‘We don’t have a stronger friend and stronger ally than Nicolas Sarkozy, and the French people.’

The Tory rebels are circling around Dave this morning. Today’s battleground is Europe, something “cast-iron” Cameron could do without going to war with his party over, let alone with those other coalition partners, the LibDems. The Europe Bill allegedly seeks to close the “wriggle room” that ministers would have in granting referendums over changes to the powers surrendered to the EU. However given the fact it would require the UK to sign up to Treaties, only to subsequently put them to the country, it has left many scratching their head at how it would work.

John Redwood exposes another massive hole though:

“The government says its Bill will reassert or confirm Parliamentary sovereignty, at least with respect to the EU. It will confirm that EU law only applies here because Parliament enacted the 1972 European Communities Act, giving the EU what powers it enjoys.

Some say it is now more complex than that. If, as some say, judges can now change or overturn laws through common law judgements and cases, then judges too can work with EU law and Treaties regardless of the views of Parliament.”

The wider debate has opened up about not only how much control we give the EU, but how much we give our judiciary. Without amendments in place by tonight, the government could be in trouble on this one and rightly so. Many on the right still hope Dave is merely keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. They hope that there is a eurosceptic heart hidden in Downing Street somewhere, so now would be a pretty good time for him to show that…