While the cat was away in Oz the mice did play last night at a meeting of the PLP. Jon Trickett, the MP for Hemsworth, urged that the NEC and the elected Parliamentary Committee to reflect on “the timing and process for the election of a new leader”. “The party has to come first” the meeting was told as Gordon Brown listened.

It has been widely reported that the Campaign Group is contemplating putting up a candidate. John Austin is also willing to stand as a stalking horse candidate, as is Glenda Jackson. But will they find 70 more MPs to back them? It all has to be done in time for party conference.So who are the likely signatories to any nomination papers? 52 dissidents rebelled on the education vote and 25 did not vote – those 77 can be assumed to be likely to want rid of Blair, add in the Brown backers on the government payroll and you have more than enough. The payroll Brownites are: Des Browne, Alistair Darling, Yvette Cooper, Nigel Griffiths, Harriet Harman, John Healey, Dawn Primarolo, Stephen Timms, Tom Watson. On the backbenches: Ian Austin, Ed Balls, Nick Brown, Tom Clarke, Frank Dobson, Doug Henderson, John McFall, Ed Milliband, Geoffrey Robinson, Clare Short, Andrew Smith, Michael Wills. But do they have the guts?

With nearly a hundred MPs for a stalking horse to appeal to, Guido has a fair few quid on Betfair’s Blair Switch bet backing the change happening July/September. In this scenario the Brownites get a smooth transition by convincing Blair they have the required numbers. At the last moment before this year’s party conference (to prevent any other candidates coming forward) Brown’s name is put forward with Blair as his first nominator. Brown becomes leader of the Labour party at the conference, Blair remains as PM to serve out his term as promised, vanity satisfied by out-distancing Thatcher. Brown gets on with the Labour party campaign against Cameron, Blair leads the country in a presidential style. This is the “Aznar solution”.

Guido has suggested previously that Michael Spencer has given the Conservative party £1m+. Tonight on Newsnight that was denied to Michael Crick. Technically he may be correct.

However Spencer’s Intercapital Private Group Ltd has actually given £326,500 at the last count. Guido understands that Lynton Crosby’s election campaign bill was also sent in the same direction – which was not unadjacent to £450,000. A few personal donations of around £80,000, a little help for Dave’s leadership campaign (including Spence’s Netjets card) and throw in the odd auction bid and, you know, it is nigh on near enough £1 million.

Guido would never expect Spence to be outgunned by his bitter moneybroking rival, the Labour backing Derek Tullet, who gave Labour a mere £400,000. So if Spence wants to get in touch and clarify the arithmetic, just email guido.fawkes@Order-Order.com.

Guido has received this official statement from Margaret Beckett in reply to his letter of this morning:

“The trust to which the letter refers was a blind trust set up while in Opposition in accordance with the then rules of the House of Commons and approved by the House authorities. It dried up and was closed down many years ago. The Secretary of State is not prepared to make any further comment on this matter”

Sent to Guido, via Ed Mitchell, SpAd to Rt Hon. Margaret Beckett MP.

That is not including the hourly rate he is paid to waffle on about the brilliance of the government and himself. Remember it is not political. It is crap however.

Guido recommends the geeks at Aplus, who will do it for a lot less!

email Aplus Wireless Networks, Consultancy, Hardware & Software

Margaret Beckett wrote on Friday to David Cameron urging him to explain the source of loans to the Tories under Michael Howard. She demanded he reveal the names of wealthy individuals and companies, the amounts they loaned – and whether any are foreign. Unless he followed Labour and the Liberal Democrats in giving full details of lenders, his party’s credibility would be “seriously compromised”, she wrote. In the letter Beckett claimed she was “concerned” at the refusal to publish a list of lenders or to confirm whether any of the party’s cash came from foreign sources.

“I am sure you will recognise that failure to do so would seriously compromise your party’s credibility and remove all legitimacy from any call you made to argue the case for openness and reform to the system… We understand that some of these loans may have been given on the basis of confidentiality. But it is clear that the public interest in outlining the full extent of loans received, as we have done, is sufficiently strong to justify any such undertakings you have given being overridden.”

Guido can reveal that Ms Beckett operated a secret trust in the late 90s to finance her leadership ambitions (people forget she was, after John Smith’s death, once leader of the Labour party). The secret “Margaret Beckett Research and Administration Trust” was the conduit for anonymous donations to support her leadership ambitions, it operated in the late 90s but was closed down by 1998 after Blair won the election. In 2000 such trusts became illegal.

UPDATE : Guido has now received an official statement from Margaret Beckett in reply to this letter.

Seems to Guido that the wrong questions are being asked, Prescott in all likelihood did not know about the loans to the property developers. Lord Levy on the other hand mixes in the same social circles as Sir David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld, the property millionaires behind Minerva.

Sleazy Levy would know that they were risking millions on getting government approval, they would therefore be vulnerable to an approach from the Labour party’s fundraiser – well, if you have a £600 million property development resting on government approval what is a £3 million “loan”? It represents less than 1/2% of the development cost.

Capita with billions in government contracts would also be vulnerable, we all know you “do not to ask for credit because refusal often offends”. What businessman would want to offend their biggest customer, even if as Labour claims it was unlikely to make any real difference, would you as CEO want to risk offending the source of more than half your revenues? Rod Aldridge didn’t approach Labour with an offer to help, they approached him – “The Labour Party came to me last year in need of financial support following the costs incurred at the last general election”, he said.

Businessman are cynical about politicians, most would view such an approach as a shakedown, but what real choice would they have?

Scotland Yard’s John Yates, who is leading the Loans for Lordships investigation, has asked for the Public Affairs Select Committee hearings to be postponed. The sleaze busting cop wants the police investigation to have precedence and the hearings scheduled for next week stopped because they risk prejudicing the criminal investigation. Lord Levy had agreed to answer the committee’s questions.

Angus MacNeil, the left-wing Scottish Nationalist MP who brought in the police to investigate the Loans for Lordships scandal, has called for Tony Blair to be prosecuted claiming that “if anybody has been corrupt or committing any crimes we have to recognise them as such, we’re equal in the eyes of the law and that includes the Prime Minister and especially the Prime Minister.”

The Tory treasurer Jonathan Marland (pictured) swears that he will not betray the confidences of Tory lenders, a refusal that Labour are desperately trying to capitalise on as the rising tide of sleaze revelations spills over the front doorstep of No. 10.

Margaret Beckett has written to David Cameron to criticise the Tories for keeping secret the names of wealthy individuals and companies, the amounts they loaned – and whether any are foreign. Unless Marland followed Labour and the Liberal Democrats in giving full details, his party’s credibility would be “seriously compromised”, she said.

Let Guido help Ms Beckett by revealing where most of the money came from;

So that is most of the mystery solved. Guido is guessing here, but Marland might himself be good for a million or so – after all he has made a tidy fortune from insurance broking. The majority of the money is easily accounted for by these donors. Guido has spotted a few hedge fund types around at Tory gatherings and would not be at all surprised to discover they have loaned out some of their gains – the stockmarket is after all booming with the FTSE hitting 6000. Now back to Sleazy Levy’s Loans for Lordships…

Michael Hintze, 53, is a former Goldman Sachs “quant jockey”, he now trades derivatives through Belgravia-based CQS – sole shareholder Michael Hintze. CQS stands for Convertible & Quantitative Strategies LLP, which last year is rumoured to have made over $100m.