You might have thought that any self-respecting ambitious shadow cabinet minister and future party leadership contender would want to keep a safe distance from the sleazy world of expenses cheats. Not Yvette Cooper.

The shadow home secretary trousered a donation of nearly £5,000 from shamed ex-Labour MP and so-called ‘Expenses Queen’ Barbara Follett this month. Follett lost her job at the last election after she was exposed as one of the worst expenses troughers of all, amongst other things claiming £500 to clean a Chinese rug. Her novelist husband Ken bankrolled Ed Balls’ leadership campaign, and overall the Folletts have donated almost £60,000 to the Balls-Coopers this Parliament. Last time round public pressure decided that Barbara Follett had no role to play in public life. Ed and Yvette clearly disagree…

Guido’s favourite bit of this week’s Daily Star Sunday column was giving Sir Jeremy Heywood’s whispered nickname a wider audience:

“DISQUIET about Downing Street’s shambolic grip on the Government machine has given way to open speculation about the No.10 team. Whispers are growing about the amount of power seized by slippery senior civil servant Sir Jeremy Heywood. With him having the PM’s ear, insiders have nicknamed the pasty-skinned Sir Jeremy “Wormtongue”, after the sinister character in The Lord Of The Rings who whispered poison to the king to further his own agenda.”

Don’t miss Marr, Bryant and Balls in the rest of the column, now online here.

Channelling Michael Winner when being accused of sexism? It’s as if Austin Mitchell was trying to make it worse

https://twitter.com/AVMitchell2010/status/262893449299238912

Austin Mitchell just told me his 'good wife' tweet mensch 'wasn't a bit of sexism', describes it as 'supremely witty…cleverly ironic'.

— Robin Brant (@robindbrant) October 29, 2012

He doesn't say when asked if he feels the need to re tract or apologise.

— Robin Brant (@robindbrant) October 29, 2012

The other A Mitchell should have used the I was only joking line…

UPDATE: Labour say:

“Austin Mitchell has made clear the tweet was a joke not a serious comment. It is not funny, understandable people find it offensive, and it is not the view of the Labour Party.”

Regular readers will remember how back in September Tim Yeo quit his lucrative job as chairman of Eco City Vehicles following Guido’s conflict of interest revelations over the summer. There’s nothing like an early resignation to head off increasing scrutiny.

The latest Register of Members’ Interests shows that Yeo pocketed £40,000 for 91 hours work at Eco City over the last year, a generous £440-an-hour. Unlike in previous years, strangely Yeo omitted to declare earnings from Eco City month by month, only to reveal them in bulk when Number 10 came calling. On top of the Eco City cash, Yeo trousered another £15,000 from his green interests in the last month alone. And still he remains as chair of the Energy and Climate Change select committee…

Coincidently Eco City, who make green taxis, will benefit hugely from black cab firm Manganese Bronze going into administration. Stay tuned…

The call in the Times this morning from Douglas Alexander and Ed Balls for a “real-terms cut” in the EU budget would have been uncomfortable enough for the PM, who is proposing an by-inflation rise, if it were not for a coordinated sting from his own party. Leaving aside the irony of Labour  jumping on this bandwagon after a decade and a half of surrendering the rebate and rubber stamping vast increases in the EU budget, a perfect storm is brewing for the PM.

When the tediously titled “EU budget simplification and the multi annual financial framework motion” reaches the Commons on Wednesday, both Mark Reckless and Mark Pritchard, the doyens of the new Tory awkward squad, are throwing very large spanners in the works. Pritchard’s amendment will call for no rise at all, while Reckless will argue for a cut. A purple plot is forming with Labour going through the lobby with the Tory rebels. A source close to the fun and games on the Tory side coughed this morning that the storm is “not entirely uncoordinated.”

UPDATE: Reckless has written at length on the plan:

“I and other Conservative colleagues are supporting an amendment to say that there must be at least some constraint on EU spending. Although many of us would wish to see a substantial reduction in EU spending, at least in line with cuts at home, today we are only asking the government to strengthen its stance so that there is some real terms reduction in the EU budget.”

Which is pretty much what Labour said this morning…

https://twitter.com/AVMitchell2010/status/262839783926136832

What is it with MPs called A Mitchell and their inappropriate outbursts?  A row broke out this weekend after Louise Mensch’s husband seemed to let the cat out of the bag about why she really stood down in Corby. Like or loath her, Labour’s Austin Mitchell’s tweet is spectacularly patronising. The 19th Century called, they want their MP back…

UPDATE:

http://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/262886143211732993

http://twitter.com/LouiseMensch/status/262886854897070080

Seems Sandy isn’t the only storm brewing state-side.