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…

Vicky Pryce claims that she was at work in central London on the 12th March 2003 and “attended a high profile conference” so she could not have taken the points in Essex. And it looks like she is telling the truth. She wouldn’t have got out of this event at the LSE until late that night:

Wednesday 12 March 2003 City Alumni event: 

“The New Economy was a fraud perpetrated by a slick public-relations machine” 
Panel: Diane Coyle, Stephen King, Vicky Pryce. Old Theatre, LSE. 6:30pm. 

Guido is FoIing the latest reincarnation of the DTI to get her diary for the rest of the day. Ever keen to help the police investigation, now all the Police need to do is look to see if Vicky took any points that day and at what time. Simples…

Huhne has met with the DPM again this morning, but Guido has got hold of the footage of another crisis meeting:

Great spot from a commenter. You couldn’t make it up…

Huhne’s silence has been laughably broken:

“All I want to say is simply that these allegations are simply incorrect. They have been made before and they have been shown to be untrue. And I very much welcome the referral to the police as it will draw a line under the matter. I don’t want to say any more than that. I think the police can get to the bottom of this.”

Straight out of the Labour spin book… Huhne’s phone-call to his wife proves how unwelcome this new, not old, story is.  A shifty, quiet, low key, yet ultimately calm denial with no reference to the wife. Huhne ran away from further questions, but has finally broken cover. His frown didn’t look very welcoming.

The Prime Ministers Spokesman said Huhne “denies the allegations” eight times at this morning’s briefing. He also said that the Prime Minister has full confidence in the Secretary of State. Set the stopwatch.

Fast forward to Cameron’s NHS speech moments later, well more importantly the questions afterwards, and Cameron explicitly did not take the  opportunity to express his full confidence in Huhne. Lucy Manning of ITV asked “Do you have full confidence in Chris Huhne?” Dave merely said “he denies the allegations”. Read “if he’s lying, he’s out”

Tim Farron was optimistically spinning on the Daily Politics that Huhne wouldn’t have to go even if he was under police investigation, Guido isn’t so sure. Detective Superintendent Tom Wills of Essex Police is investigating whether to investigate “This is the work that my team and I will be carrying out this week.” It really shouldn’t take that long to interview two people and pull up a couple of forms…

While the public has widely mocked the silent Chris Huhne all day through #HuhneTunes on Twitter, Allegra Stratton has got a LibDem insider to defend the deepening situation:

“We are in a similar place to where we were last weekend. Has there been produced something devastating? Not really.”

If that is the case, put Huhne on TV tonight, or first thing on Monday morning, and let him deny it in person. 

But have we really learnt nothing new, as the laughable LibDem attempt at spin would have us believe? What about the bit where he orders a cover-up and tries to silence the person on the other end of the line, who is clearly doing the recording and seems on very familiar terms with the embattled Secretary of State:

“If I were you … do not talk. I would have thought you would not want to talk… 

…There is no way, there is no way, that there is any evidence for this story, unless you decide to give some legs to it by saying something. Okay?”

Or what about the bit where he instructs the other person with what to do if a journalist rang:

“Just say, ‘Terribly bad line, terribly sorry, bad reception, I’ll talk to you later,’ and hang up.”

Something Huhne’s SpAd Joel Kenrick did to Guido last night.

Or what about the bit where Huhne is directly challenged, that’s new:

CH: “There’s no question of it coming out, because it’s simply not true, that’s it.”

ANON: “I’m sorry, what? Why are you suddenly saying that?”

Why was it then suddenly not “sensible to have these sorts of conversations on the phone”. Did Huhne realise he was being taped?

Today Huhne has instructed solictors at Mishcon de Reya, presumably to deal with the pending police investigation, rather than to start suing people. The courts could order witnesses and potentially damning documents currently out of the reach of journalists. A wise precaution, given the potentially huge  public outcry if the police treated Huhne any differently from any other member of the public.

Huhne can’t hide from the cameras forever. At the very least he has got some serious explaining  to do regarding that phone call, in public. But no, cowardly Chris is in hiding.

UPDATE: Tomorrow’s Mail splash confirms it was Vicky Pryce who secretly recorded the conversation. If you hadn’t worked that one out already…

UPDATE II: The Telegraph say Essex Police have already looked up the speeding dates and also confirm it was Pryce. As Guido told you last Wednesday…

Labour MP Simon Danczuk has reported Chris Huhne to the coppers after today’s fresh allegations and a taped near-confession. Essex police said:

“We are aware of allegations regarding a speeding offence in 2003. This information will be passed to officers who will decide on whether an investigation will be launched. We take allegations such as this one extremely seriously and will take action where necessary.”

Huhne can’t hide for ever, at some point he is going to have to step in front of a camera…

Regular readers will remember the fun that Guido had with Nurse Pilgrim, the Unison rep posing as a nurse to smear Lansley, who was making money on the side with her sly consultancy firm and lives in a hippy commune. Yeah, that one.

Well to cut a long story short, Jane Pilgrim’s poison has come to the attention of Parliament, and an EDM has been tabled to fight against the thousands of union officials, just like Jane Pilgrim, depriving the public sector of a front line salary:

Trades Union Officials Funded from the Public Purse. EDM 1799

That this house notes the existence of full time Trades Union officials whose salaries are paid by the taxpayer; further notes that these have been nicknamed “Pilgrims” by the media as a reference to Jane Pilgrim from UNISON who attacked the government whilst claiming to be a nurse, it was subsequently shown that she didn’t practise but instead claimed an NHS salary to work for the union; believes that this practise is deplorable; further believes that we do not know how many Pilgrims there are in Britain but each one deprives the taxpayer of valuable frontline services; resolves to continue to work towards a ban on Trades Union Pilgrims.

Guido knows there are MPs reading this, and he might put you on the nice, rather than the naughty list if you sign it.

“Energy secretary Chris Huhne is launching the first new grid connection to Europe for 25 years today” which must be exciting. A government source just confirmed to Guido that they are keeping Huhne on a very low profile for the next couple of days. That would explain why today he was sent to that known bastion of political action, Rochester. Why? 

Guido now has it triple sourced that two Sunday papers are going to put the bullet provided for them by Mrs Huhne straight through the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change’s head. Speeding points and the rest…

Guido has been digging on this one all week and the it’s a total mess. One Downing Street source gave him a 10% survival rate past Sunday…

UPDATE:

Spotted at the Bleeding Heart Restaurant on Tuesday. Vicky Pryce aka Mrs Chris Huhne. Irony.—
Eye Spy MP (@eyespymp) May 12, 2011

There’s a thin line between sorrow and rage.