Laws is to make an apology to the House at 1pm. He just reacted to a savaging from John Lyon by saying “my motivation, as the Commissioner has accepted, was to protect my privacy not to benefit financially”. Not good enough.

Lyon hits the nail on the head – Laws is “guilty of a series of serious breaches of the rules over a considerable time”. He can’t come back to Cabinet anytime soon, which must be frustrating for Clegg given the potential opening shortly. So what next for Laws?

Rumour has it, his house in his Yeovil constituency is up for sale…