If one can judge an expenses piggy by the company she keeps, it’s telling that Joan Ryan’s friends in high places include Tom Watson and Margaret Hodge. Ryan has even tapped up Hodge to write to residents in Enfield North, Hodge helpfully describes her as “a great campaigner with strong values” and ” a first-rate MP”. Obviously forgetting that she was kicked out last time after claiming £4,500 for work on her second home and having to pay back over £5,000 in mortgage interest. Now former Enfield Labour leader Jeff Rodin has pleaded with Hodge to withdraw her endorsement in a letter seen by Guido:

“All the good work that has been done by the Labour Borough Campaign Team in raising the profile and standing of Labour in the whole of Enfield would be undermined by the selection of Joan Ryan… Of the 5 candidates, it is my view that she is the one whose selection would most please the current Conservative MP and his campaign Team, and also would be most likely to damage the prospects for Labour in the Borough both for the 2014 Local Election as well as the next General Election… I have no doubt that there is more that the Conservatives plan to reveal if she is selected.”

As if that were not enough, local Labour councillors Derek Levy, Don McGowan and Ozzie Uzoanya are complaining to the party’s head office accusing Ryan of sending “misleading” leaflets to constituents. “Such behaviour is unacceptable as it is misleading to members. We will be notifying Labour Party Head Office”, they say.

Selection is on Sunday. The knives are out…

See also: Labour Accuse Candidate of ‘Tower Hamlets-Style’ Stitch Up, Tom Watson Fingered Over Plotting Dinner, Voters Warn Labour Expenses Piggy Not to Run, Labour Expenses Piggy Tries to Run Again.

As Guido revealed in his column in yesterday’s Sun, IPSA has spent a staggering three quarters of a million pounds of taxpayers’ money on lawyers and spinners this parliament. Figures seen by Guido show that IPSA has shelled out £512,857 on legal battles with money-grabbing MPs, blowing a further £240,782 on “professional fees” including a less than successful public relations team. Quite why taxpayers should have to reach so deep into their pockets to pay for the petty courtroom squabbles of greedy MPs Guido isn’t sure…

In Guido’s Sun column yesterday we revealed that the disgraced former MP Denis MacShane has become a lobbyist despite still under police investigation for expenses fiddles. The laptop grabber is currently hawking around his CV in which he describes himself as a self-employed consultant based in “London, Paris and Washington”, “advising Asian, US and UK based firms on government policy problems and media strategy”. For some reason the would-be lobbyist’s CV doesn’t mention why he was kicked out of Parliament and remains to this day under investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

His alleged new offices in “London, Paris and Washington” will be a big step up from his old office – the garage of his semi-detached house in Rotherham – for which over 8 years he pocketed £125,000 in office rent expenses from the taxpayer…

Are you an Honourable Member yet to get his or her money’s worth from the taxpayer this year? Fancy an iPad, laptop, or maybe if you’re feeling particularly piggy a cosy little rent-swap this Thursday morning? There are just a few hours left for greedy MPs who have left it late to submit expenses claims for this financial year. Guido’s source in IPSA is expecting a fair few claims to come in on deadline day, so it isn’t going to be a cheap one for the taxpaying public. Fill your boots.

Ironically, today is also the ASI’s Tax Freedom Day. This means that for the average citizen, today is the day you start to actually keep the money you earn; everything you have made so far this year went to the state in tax. Perfect timing.

Labour haven’t yet been stupid enough to select expenses piggy Joan Ryan as their candidate in Enfield North, though the LibDems really do need to take a look at themselves. They have reselected shamed trougher Richard Younger-Ross, who was kicked out as MP for Teignbridge (now Newton Abbot) in 2010 after infamously claiming £1,235 for four mirrors to furnish his London flat. He also bought a £1,100 stereo system, a £1,475 chest of drawers and a £500 ‘Don Juan’ bookcase with taxpayers’ money. Sure that will reflect well on voters when he knocks on doors in 2015…

Earlier this month Guido revealed that expenses scandal piggy Joan Ryan was begging her local Labour party for support as she tries to run again in 2015. That despite being kicked out by the electorate after claiming £4,500 for work on her second home and having to pay back over £5,000 in mortgage interest. As if having the nerve to show her face in Enfield North again wasn’t enough, now she has been accused of trying to stitch up the Labour selection in neighbouring Enfield Southgate; Guido is told she brought along dozens of new members to the local CLP’s AGM in order to back her pal Ibrahim Dogus. Guido has repeatedly asked Ryan why she is sticking her oar in but for some reason she doesn’t want to talk. Her own former constituents have certainly had enough. This is from her local paper’s letter page this morning:

You’d have thought she would get the message…

The fact that Tory MP Stewart Jackson hasn’t even sold his house will make his battle with IPSA’s expensive legal team, Cherie Blair’s Matrix Chambers, all the more interesting. Especially since he isn’t even considering selling up. Guido is however more amused by Jackson’s claim that house prices were falling in his area, so the value of his property couldn’t possibly have increased by 20% as IPSA claim. Which is somewhat ironic given that Jackson’s wife is none other than Daily Express property hack Sarah O’Grady, known for headlines such as “House prices rocket to a three-year high”, “Biggest house price rises in a year”, “House prices surge for second month in a row” and “House prices on rise again”. And many, many more. Stewart obviously isn’t a reader…

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.

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.”