Priti Patel's dad standing for Ukip, Farage announces

— James Forsyth (@JGForsyth) April 30, 2013

So Priti Patel’s father was publicly a candidate for UKIP for approximately an hour and a half today before it was announced he was standing down. So what happened?

Sushil Patel – dad of Tory MP Priti Patel – tells @Sun_Politics that he is standing down as a UKIP candidate….

— Sun Politics (@SunPolitics) April 30, 2013

Needless to say that senior UKIP figures were rather excited about securing Mr Patel as a candidate, so much so that one of their senior comms people couldn’t help but cough it to a BBC journalist in the Marquis of Granby, Westminster last night. Unfortunately for the spinner he failed to check who said Beeboid was drinking with – a government special adviser – who promptly went round the corner and immediately called the story in to CCHQ. By the time it broke this afternoon, the Tories were well prepared to kill it and the rest they say is history…

UPDATE: He’s still a candidate say UKIP:

Mr. Patel remains the UKIP candidate for the Bushey South Division in the Hertfordshire County Council elections. He is currently convalescing from a recent serious operation and is unable to conduct any further interviews. Mr. Patel said,  “I am proud of being a UKIP candidate and very proud of the achievements of my daughter who represents the people of Witham in an exemplarily fashion.  My views are my own and I am astonished that there has been quite so much interest in my candidacy”.

UPDATE II: UKIP sources keen to stress no names mentioned in pub and pressure from CCHQ on Mr Patel only came this afternoon, after James Forsyth’s Tweet. Phone call came during photoshoot, there was a minor wobble but Sushil Patel is on ballot and is a candidate.

Lord Tebbit has accused the BBC and CCHQ of colluding to smear UKIP. While that is going a bit far, his words for Cameron are worth the box office treatment. Writing on his Telegraph blog, Norm has given Dave both barrels:

“The intentions of many one-time Tory voters will have been reinforced by Ken Clarke’s singularly ill-judged rant calling them “clowns”. That has to be as stupid a way of persuading defectors to return to the Conservative fold as Cameron’s rant about closet racists and fruitcakes. If Thursday is a bad day for Mr Cameron, he should have no doubt where the responsibility lies. Certainly, the rest of us will all know who to blame if  it is an even worse day for the Conservatives that it need have been.”

Tebbit points out that he will be voting Conservative on the basis of his local council’s record, but is very sympathetic to those without an excuse:

“Of course it may well be that many former Conservative voters are so fed up with the Cameron Coalition that they will turn to Ukip as the party which comes closest to a traditional Conservative agenda, and a reasoned position on the European issue. One can hardly blame them for that.”

You can tell the truth when you are above the law.

Scottish Coal has gone into provisional liquidation, with 600 people losing their jobs. Asset strippers have moved in, mines are being sold off and the business is winding up. What went wrong?

The doom-mongering Prime Mentalist was all smiles and full of good cheer as he visited Scottish Coal at St. Ninians in Fife last May:

“The Company and all those who work on the site should be very proud of what they are doing. I am sure that the project will be a big success and become a significant asset for our local area.”

Everything he touches…

Regular readers will recall that last year Guido was leaked huge amounts of paperwork regarding a fraud carried out by Justine Greening’s agent in Putney between 2006 and 2010. Robert Morritt had since got himself elected on to Wandsworth Council and local Tories saw fit to put the report in the drawer and pretend £50,000 had not gone walkies. You can read the full story here.

In the wake of Guido’s exposé, that revealed the full extent of the theft and the cover up, an independent investigation was set up; apparently to dispel concerns that the author of the first report was in some way “biased”. Cllr Ray Puddifoot, the leader of Hillingdon Council, chartered accountant and all round upstanding citizen, has now produced that second report and, guess what? It confirms what Guido was saying. Hard copies of the report have been seen by council figures to avoid it leaking, but Guido has spoken to sources familiar with its content. Puddlefoot is said to have identified even more problems with Cllr Morritt’s time at the Wandsworth Conservative Group.

CCHQ are, as one might expect, having kittens and have made it known to officers of Wandsworth Conservatives that either they deal with Morritt or the Party Board will. Yet silence so far. The report was published over a week ago and meeting after meeting has been held to persuade Morritt to resign from Wandsworth Council and trigger a by-election. He is refusing. A source at the heart of all this tells Guido: “Morritt is clinging on for dear life, desperately hoping that a small clique of followers in Putney and a few unsubstantiated claims about how all of this is a conspiracy will save him. It will not. Nothing can save him and if he had the slightest interest in the good of the party, he would do the honourable thing.” What’s the one about honour and thieves?

Two-faced Chuka Umunna has been getting on his high horse about how terribly unfair private schools are at the Times CEO Africa summit today:

Chuka Umanna suggests private schooling can damage social mobility. Kimmelman: our customers exclusively earn under $2 a day #timesceoafrica

— Juliet Samuel (@CitySamuel) April 30, 2013

That would be the same Chuka Umunna who was deputy head boy of £4,700-a-term independent day school St Dunstan’s College. The same Chuka Umunna who says being privately schooled by the likes of Anthony Seldon “had a massive impact on me” as he began to “fly academically”. The same Chuka Umunna who says he “wouldn’t rule out“ sending his own children to a private school. Presumably the local comp is a bit too trashy…

Whiny Steve Rotheram likes asking questions in the House about Aintree. He also likes free boozy days out at Liverpool’s premier race course. His question in 2011 was particularly friendly, by chance of course:

“As people will know, Aintree has world class facilities and race meetings. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the levy [for bookies to help fund horse racing] is important even to racecourses at the top end so that they can continue to improve the racing that they offer, which will then attract tourism to cities such as Liverpool and contribute wider economic benefits to the sub-region?”

Earlier this month Rotheram was generously handed another two tickets for lunch and racing at Aintree worth £800. Guido awaits his next gushing question…