LibDem sources are starting to twist the knife:

‘The conventional wisdom is that Huhne will end up having to go. He is being highly reckless in taking it to the wire like this. Chris clearly doesn’t think they will find the evidence. He wants to brazen it out. He is brazen. That’s what he does.”

The Mail is reporting this afternoon that Carina Trimingham was not the first mistress Huhne had. That should keep Vicky Pryce on the warpath…

UPDATE 17.38: Essex Police have just confirmed they are launching a formal investigation. Essex Police statement:

“An investigation is ongoing in relation to the circumstances surrounding the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice in 2003. It would be inappropriate for the police to discuss this matter any further in order to avoid prejudicing the investigation. Essex Police request that the press are mindful of this in their reporting.”

Game over.

Last night Chris Huhne contacted Essex Police offering to help in their investigation in anyway he can. According to Alastair Campbell’s old rule, Chris is trying to take the initiative and a get a grip on this story ten days too late. This is going to drag on until the weekend…

The DVLA have confirmed that records are only kept as far back as 2006, though Guido understands the coppers are still confident they can ascertain what happened back in 2003 from their end. He suspects Huhne is betting otherwise…

UPDATE : There is a rumour going round that Vicky Pryce has already spoken with the Essex Police. Nigel Farage has definitely spoken to Essex Police. They will be speaking to Huhne next week. Presumably under caution…

In 2005 Geoff Hoon was Defence Secretary. In March of that year defence giants Westland got a £1.7billion contract from the MOD. Nobody else was invited to bid. Which was a bit odd.

In 2010 Geoff Hoon was exposed seeking a “little hoonwork” in the form of lobbying work on the side by an undercover sting. He was sacked from his job at Nato and lost the Labour whip. Disgraced, you might call it.

Yesterday it was announced Geoff Hoon has been given a top job at Westland. What a coincidence…

Essex Police have just announced that they will be interviewing the “key individuals” over allegations that Huhne tried to evade punishment for speeding. That would be him and his soon to be ex-wife then.

Michael Crick speculates that Clegg could have been on the same plane that night, and Guido has found the speed camera. Senior LibDems knew about the allegations years ago. How deep was the cover-up? Perhaps the police might like to call Clegg as a witness if he was on the plane…

Huhne was looking chipper and smiling when he snuck in late to PMQs. And no wonder, Ken Clarke’s mealy-mouthed mess today has given Huhne huge amounts of cover when he would have been the biggest political story for another day.

But he’s back up the agenda now…

UPDATE: The full statement from Detective Superintendent Tim Wills, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate:

“There are many lines of inquiry to be taken and the team are still working to establish if an offence has been committed. Obviously, this will entail speaking to key individuals identified by the enquiry team. It would not be appropriate to release any more information prior to progressing these lines of enquiry.”

UPDATE II:

I'm told Essex Police contacted Nigel Farage over Chris Huhne speeding allegations. Farage told them he couldn't be sure he was on flight—
  (@sophyridge) May 18, 2011

That’s not to say the old bill can’t check the flight records.

UPDATE III:

On Huhne – Essex police source tells me they think there may still be evidence on record relating to alleged speeding offence in 2003—
Laura Kuenssberg (@BBCLauraK) May 18, 2011

‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello…

Ever keen to help out in the Huhne investigation, Guido would just like to point out that there is only one speed camera on the Southbound M11. It’s at Loughton where the three lanes converge into two. You would drive past it on the way back from Stansted airport…

Day 10: Another ravaging for Huhne in the papers. Nigel Farage reckons that Chris Huhne was in Essex the night of the speeding offence, as he was usually on the same flight from Strasbourg to Stansted airport and he travelled on March 12, 2003. Meanwhile Vicky Pryce was dining forty miles away in London.

The Mail  reports that senior LibDems colluded in a cover up, and turned a blind eye to Huhne pulling the ticket stunt on more than one occasion. They also claim Vicky Pryce sought the advice of and friend and judge in 2003. The Telegraph picked up in Guido’s non-denial denial speculation from yesterday. A senior LibDem source twisted the knife last night:

“There is blood in the water and the sharks are circling. So far Huhne has failed to deny the allegations in full, he has only said that the allegations are incorrect. The story just does not stack up,”

Huhne was abandoned in the House yesterday. Colleagues notably failed to rally around him for his big climate announcement. He sat and faced the mockery and  and jokes from Labour alone. #HuhneTunes at the weekend was the public laughing, and now Huhne’s fellow MPs are mocking him. Guido has said it before and will say it again – can a cabinet minister survive when he has become a national joke and synonymous with lying? Methinks not…

10 minute rule Bill to follow Chris Huhne's statement on Dangerous Driving – you couldn't make it up—
Kevin Brennan (@KevinBrennanMP) May 17, 2011

The “Ten Minute Rule Motion, Dangerous Driving (Maximum Sentence)” is directly after Huhne’s climate statement. Someone in the parliamentary business office certainly has a sense of humour. Will be amusing to watch Huhne try speed off before it begins. Beep beep…

Chris Huhne misses a golden opportunity to deny the allegations:

CH: The only way they can stand that up is by getting you to talk to them. There is simply no other person who could possibly tell them whether it is true or not.

VP:  It’s one of the things that worried me when you made me take the points.

CH: I honestly don’t think, I really don’t think, that it is sensible to have these sorts of conversations over the phone,

Huhne keeps referring to the fact that these allegations have apparently been made before and been shown to be untrue. When Chris?

Guido has been digging for days and cannot see where these specific allegations surfaced before the ninth of this month. He understands, however, that a former female staffer complained earlier this year to the PCC’s pre-publication and harassment service saying that false allegations were being put to her. Obviously, given the nature of the complaint, the PCC are being extremely tight-lipped here.

If  Huhne is referring to this incident as the allegations being “made before and shown to be untrue“, then he is denying he pressurised a staffer, but that’s not the allegation being made by Vicky Pryce. Was yesterday’s TV denial, slammed for style, also void of any real substance?

Labour are right to highlight the fact that Huhne’s attempts to clear his name, while in hiding, are hindering his ability to do his job as Secretary of State. His attempt to avoid the House today has been crushed. Get the popcorn ready for 16.30… 

Not his bosses yet, but a damning leader in tomorrow’s Telegraph:

“Did he, as his wife apparently alleges, ask her to accept a speeding penalty on her driving licence on his behalf? Mr Huhne, who left Vicky Pryce for another woman, says this version of events is “simply incorrect”.”

Why did he say “incorrect” instead of “not true”? Did his lawyers advise him to give that wriggle room?

“He is, in other words, calling his estranged wife a liar. Yet to admit she is telling the truth is to confess to a criminal act. It could be argued that if Mr Huhne is in the right then he is entitled to save his own political skin by accusing the woman he abandoned of lying. But it still looks pretty caddish. It is worse if he is in the wrong and knows it – but thinks it can’t be proved. Either way, a thorough police investigation is required.”

One angle missed out is what if Huhne filled in the form without his wife’s knowledge, and she was in London as today’s digging proved that she was? Newsnight, hot on Guido’s tail, will be touching on this issue tonight. Either way a Secretary of State has been “the story” for near on 8 days. And it’s not going to go away tomorrow…

UPDATE : It looks like it will be a head-on car crash.

Guido imagines Huhne’s bill with Mishcon de Reya just soared…