Six-figure salaries, generous expenses and first class seats on the gravy train to Brussels, no wonder there were hundreds of applicants to become Labour candidates for the European Parliament. As Guido revealed in yesterday’s Sun column, two of their London candidates are Ivana Bartoletti, who in 2007 was elected to the Italian parliament in Rome, and Andrea Biondi, an unsuccessful candidate for the Italian parliament in January. His campaign website is still in Italian and he has yet to replace the Italian socialist party logo with the Labour Party’s logo.

Ed says he wants more ordinary working class candidates, so it seems odd that Labour wants to send two academic Italian political insiders to represent London’s interests in Brussels. Couldn’t they find any Brits good enough to do the job?