Some good news to end the week on: police have handed a file of evidence against Denis MacShane to the CPS.

Decision time…

Read all Guido’s stories on expenses cheat MacShane here.

Bad news for the Co-op today as Moody’s downgrades their debt rating to junk status. Labour’s bank of choice has been battered by bad debts over recent years, one of their major debtors is – surprise, surprise – none other than the Labour Party themselves. Of the £3,580,000 borrowed in 1999, only £189,000 has been repaid, meaning Labour still owe their troubled lender £3,391,000. Maybe they could pay them back to help them out a bit…

The annual Taxpayers’ Alliance town hall rich list is out this morning. An 11% fall in council staff earning over £100,000, but thousands still on the gravy train in our rotten boroughs…

IPSA has today released details of MPs who made profits on the second home capital gains. Tory Stewart Jackson is being sued for £54,000 after failing to agree a repayment plan. Andy Burnham still owes £2,850.24 after creaming off a £4,456.08 capital gains profit, to be repaid by November this year. John Denham is due to pay back £5,394.80, David Willetts owes £7,230.74, James Paice £9,177.12, Andrew George is paying back ten grand and Brian Donohoe still owes £7,369.36. Philip Hammond is on his last repayment of £34,883.54 capital gains. Most MPs have already paid back the cash they made, David Gauke forked out £26,762.76, John Whittingdale £12,441.00, Tim Yeo £3,215.74, David Jones £81,446.00, Greg Campbell £61,403.18, and Hazel Blears £7,644.00. You can see the details in full here.

Expenses trougher and Labour’s former Enfield North MP Joan Ryan has some nerve. In a letter to her local Labour Party seen by Guido, Ryan begs them for her support, saying she wants to run again in 2015: “we have to select the best candidate to win for Labour in Endfield North… now I’m asking for your support to become Labour’s parliamentary candidate”. Apparently with a straight face, she insists “had it not been for the changes to parliamentary boundaries we would still have a Labour MP in Enfield North”.

Definitely nothing to do with the fact that during the expenses scandal Ryan was exposed as having claimed £4,500 for work on her second home, having to pay back over £5,000 in mortgage interest the following year. Her wikipedia page was mysteriously edited at least ten times from inside the parliamentary estate in an attempt to remove details of her expenses indiscretions. For some reason no mention of any of this in Ryan’s letter. And certainly no apology. Her local party have given her short shrift so far, the final selection meeting is tomorrow…

UPDATE: Ryan’s ex-agent Chris Deacon has come out against her plans for a return:

“I think the membership feels that for us to win we need a fresh, new candidate to take the party forward.”

As Guido reported in his Sun column at the weekend, greedy MPs are asking for even more of our money in expenses cash despite having their staffing budget raised by an unbelievable inflation busting 25% last year. In emails seen by Guido, piggy MPs claim that dealing with an increased number of problems due to cuts to local public advice services means they should be entitled to yet another “substantial” increase. They have been told where to go in no uncertain terms by the clearly unimpressed Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority:

“MPs will be aware that, following a comprehensive review and consultation, we increased the staffing budget by up to 25% in 2012-13. In the current economic climate, we consider this already substantial budget (£144,000 for London Area MPs and £137,200 for Non-London Area MPs) to be at the limit of what we, as a publicly funded body, are able to provide to MPs.”

They have some nerve…

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?

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…

Guido senses a disturbance in the force down Wandsworth way…

Background here:

• Justine Greening’s Agent in Addison Lee Fraud Mess
• Wandsworth Tory Auditor in Voodoo Accounting Mystery
• More Questions Over Morritt’s Missing Money
• Morritt Pocketed Election Deposit Dosh
• Wandsworth Tories Demand Guido “Desist” 
• The £20,000 Question for Wandsworth Conservatives
• Wandsworth Gags Councillors Over Tory Fraud
• Yet More Unexplained Cheques in Wandsworth Fraud Scandal
• Wandsworth Council Suspend Tory Fraud Suspect
• The Questions Wandsworth Won’t Answer
• Furious Wandsworth Fraud Councillor Loses Party Posts
• Wandsworth Labour Threaten to Call Police Over Tory Fraud
• Tory Fraud: Semi-Independent Scrutineer Appointed

As revealed by Guido in yesterday’s Sun on Sunday column, taxpayers are paying the price for a spate of thefts across Westminster. 24 top-of-the-range laptops have been stolen from parliament and Whitehall departments in the last year, with three more lost and dozens of iPads and BlackBerries either lost or lifted by light-fingered crims. Worryingly 527 parliamentary passes and 33 departmental passes allowing holders total access to the corridors of power have also gone missing, along with laptop encryption keys and security devices. The total cost to the taxpayer to replace all lost or stolen items has reached nearly £35,000. Confirmation of what we always suspected, parliament is full of thieves…