The Prime Minister might be cutting child benefit for hard-working families up and down the country, but that hasn’t stopped him showing off about his £3,500 for a Savile Row suit to fashionistas. However Guido’s favourite story from his Daily Star Sunday column, that involved Whitehall’s newest spinner:

“THE Tories were against political appointments to the Civil Service until they got into government. But now Alex Aiken, the party’s former head of news under William Hague, is taking over as executive director of government communications – one of the most powerful spin jobs in Whitehall. A decade ago Aiken was a Tory HQ staffer when he was famously spotted leaving a Commons bar with topless model Jo Guest, inset, after a marathon drinking session. Downing Street will be hoping Aiken can keep abreast of the news and spin the Government out of trouble, which means it’s not the last time he will be handling big boobs.”

If you had picked up your copy yesterday you would also have the latest on legendary luncher Lord Strathclyde, how Dave “lost the room” while briefing Tory MPs on 2015 election strategy, and why James Landale caused a stir when he got the news about Andrew Marr. Guido’s column is now online here…

In Guido’s Daily Star Sunday column:

• The night the government’s new head of spin had with topless glamour model Jo Guest.
  
• We are not all-in-onesies-together. Which politician wears £3,500 suits?
• Who was the Tory MP who lambasted Cameron over gay marriage?
• What was the final straw for Strathclyde? How keen is his successor Lord Hill?
• Where was James Landale when he got the news about Marr? And who was annoyed with him?

All for just £1…

As reported in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday:

JIM Davidson was praised by Iain Duncan Smith as “a true Conservative supporter” back in 2001, after the comedian bankrolled his victorious Tory leadership campaign. Davidson returned the favour, calling IDS a “very, very caring man” and helped raise cash for the party. Jim is still a member of the posh Carlton Club on London’s St James’s Street that’s favoured by Tory grandees. Guido’s mole reports that recently Davidson was noisily speculating in the club bar about who might be next on the Jimmy Savile cops’ list. The funny man isn’t laughing now he has been nicked flying into Heathrow on his way to the Celebrity Big Brother house.

Guido’s other favourite story from this week had to be Lembit’s New Year’s Eve:

HAPPY New Year to Lembit Opik, who welcomed in 2013 from the cloakroom of the Driver nightclub in London’s Kings Cross. New Year’s Eve revellers were shocked to discover the former Liberal Democrat MP dressed in black tie, checking IDs, tickets and taking coats. He told one partygoer that he wasn’t promoting the “secret agent-themed” party, just helping out as he was “at a loose end”. “It was all incredibly bizarre, as were his dance moves,” one told Guido.

Half a million people read it in print yesterday, and you can now read the blog’s Sunday column online here.

A warm welcome to John Prescott in the Mirror today with his debut column. He presumes to give Michael Gove a history lesson and claims that his government is “taking us back to the 1980s with high unemployment”.

We had a little Twitter spat as a consequence:

Welcome to @JohnPrescott in @TheSundayMirror, small fact check on claim government "taking us back to the 1980s with high unemployment".

—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) January 06, 2013

Unemployment rate is now lower than it was under Gordon Brown @JohnPrescott

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Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) January 06, 2013

RT @GuidoFawkes Unemployment rate is now lower than it was under Brown @JohnPrescott < No. Down to 5.2% with GB. Cam took to 8.4%. Still 7.8

—
John Prescott (@johnprescott) January 06, 2013

Disingenuously comparing the unemployment rate at its best under Brown with its worst under Cameron rather than the 8% rate that it was when Brown was voted out of office.

On the day Gordon Brown left office unemployment rate was higher than it is today. These are facts. Spin your readers not me. @johnprescott

—
Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) January 06, 2013

Not to mention that unemployment is thankfully far lower than it was in the 80s and falling…

In Guido’s Daily Star Sunday column:

• Jim Davidson in the Carlton Club
• Lembit the “bizarre” cloakroom attendant
• Andrew Mitchell and scowling cops
• Farage mocks Cameron
• Francis Urquhart goes to Washington with a Hollywood star
• “Common Purpose” in Parliament
• Is Chuka too grand and too vain?

Plus, no Prezza! 

If you had picked up your copy of the Daily Star Sunday yesterday you would already know that:

• The PM has organised his Lobby drinks to clash with Ed Balls’ long-scheduled shindig. Coincidence? Meanwhile Nick Clegg’s Christmas drinks at Prezza’s old place seemed dull in comparison to George Osborne’s Gangnam Style antics.
• Sally Bercow is officially back on the sauce, with a potential £50,000 bill due to Lord McAlpine who can blame her?
• Louise Mensch has taken up weight-lifting, “to give her upper body strength to match the lower body strength she gets from jogging”. Well she needs something to pass the time.

Yesterday’s column is now online here…

Well the Tom Watson re-branding exercise didn’t last very long. Having lit the touch-paper for incorrect Tory paedo-outings and then running away, Watson has been keeping a rather low profile of late. That did not escape the notice of one Tory MP though, as reported in yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday:

LABOUR bruiser Tom Watson was surprisingly absent during the Prime Minister’s statement about the Leveson Inquiry on the day the report into the Press was published. Backbench Tory MP Andrew Bridgen remarked on the large Watson-shaped hole on the Labour benches during the debate. When on Monday morning they came face to face in the cloisters around Parliament, Bridgen chirpily said: “We missed you on Thursday, Tom.” At which point Watson, “shaking with rage”, jabbed his finger at Bridgen and menacingly told him: “You’re going to f**king regret that.”

What’s that thing about leopards and spots?

The rest of Guido’s Sunday column, including Harriet Harman’s “bit of rough”, an update on Euan Blair and Sally’s disappointment, is now online.

Guido’s column in the Daily Star Sunday will be regulated if Labour get their way. No wonder Chris Bryant was so smug:

“Labour MP Chris Bryant, who has campaigned against the Press for years, seemed pretty smug, sneering at a lift full of reporters: “Ah journalists, the ones that are still alive, for now…” His smirk was soon gone, though, and he had a face like thunder when he got up in the Commons a few hours later to whine that the Prime Minister was selling out by sticking to the principle of no state control of newspapers.”

This week’s column, full of wee puns, is now online here.

In this week’s column read all about what sent Chris Bryant from being smug with reporters to ranting about them, Harriet Harman’s latest u-turn and how Tory whips are bribing rebel MPs on expenses. Also find out which Tory MP says the PM is disappointing and has fragile prospects of forming a majority (it’s not Nadine!) and see how Gordon Brown marked the first anniversary of the last time he spoke in parliament.

All this and more in today’s Daily Star Sunday, just 90p…

It’s not all  bad news for Sally Bercow, she’s managed to take some time away from Twitter to let off steam:

SALLY Bercow is rumoured to be disappointed that her husband John has finally put his foot down about her going on any more high-paying reality TV shows. Sally says she is broke and won’t be able to afford legal bills that may result from her ill-judged tweets about Tory multi-millionaire Lord McAlpine. Labour-supporting Sally claims the legal action is “politically motivated”, though that didn’t stop her singing away the blues last Thursday with a group of Tory researchers in Parliament’s Sports and Social Bar.

Guido is never wrong for long, and always endeavours to make clarifications and corrections as soon as possible whenever he makes a mistake. In the spirit of press reform, his apology to Labour’s Andy Sawford was given due prominence yesterday:

GUIDO would like to apologise to Labour’s Andy Sawford, the new MP for Corby. Last month this column suggested he was second-generation Labour aristocracy. He is in fact the third generation of the Sawford family to carry the red flag into elected office. Andy’s father was the MP for the neighbouring seat until 2005 and his great-grandfather was a Labour councillor in the 1930s. How’s that for social mobility?

Elsewhere in the column there was Boris pulling strings for Bond, LibDem spinning cock ups and Prezza’s rather complacent campaigner.

Yesterday’s Daily Star Sunday column is now online.