Significantly fewer people turned out for both the Tories and LibDems yesterday compared with 2010; the blues down 14% and the yellows by 14.5%. Labour’s vote was largely unchanged. A huge swing to UKIP…

All the old favourites this morning. Gordon’s former SpAd and Guido’s old friend Damian McBride is up before the Public Administration Committee. If his blogs are anything to go by he is billed to lift the lid on the plots, gossip an conspiracy during his time at Number 10. Should any publishers be watching, you can see his evidence here…

Labour peer George Foulkes’ FOI revelation that Clegg has 15 SpAds beggars belief when you look at his media management this week. The eagle-eyed among Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidates never miss a chance to bash the Deputy PM, however. Step forward Redcar hopeful Anna Turley:

A million pounds a year on 15 political advisers for Nick Clegg??!! The world's gone mad. As vital community groups fold & poorest punished.—
Anna Turley (@annaturley) February 24, 2013

Anna seems to have forgotten that she herself was a SpAd not once, but twice. Not just any SpAd either, but a super important one. She specialised in “social exclusion” while working for Hilary Armstrong, and child poverty and equality under David Blunkett. Guido wonders how many community groups her wage could have gone to support…

Biographer and chronicler of the Brown years, Anthony Seldon, has a damning letter to Ed Balls in tomorrow’s New Statesman:

“The time has come for you to fall on your sword.

After 20 unbroken years at the heart of politics, quitting in the next few months until, say, 2017 would undoubtedly benefit your leader, your party, your wife and even yourself. Let me explain.

Ed Miliband would be a much stronger leader without you. Forgive me, but you stop Ed breathing fresh air.

With you close to him, his breath will always be stale and smell of a toxic brand. Without a prolonged period out of the public eye, neither you nor the party will ever rid yourselves of the opportunistic, negative and bullying image of the Gordon era.

Without you, Labour could present itself as a clean party, free of the factionalism and brutalism that so tarnished it when Brown was boss and you were his consigliere.

If Labour loses in 2015, you will be blamed and your career will be damaged beyond repair. If it wins, you would return to the front bench in 2017 a redeemed and respected figure. You might even one day become leader, your long-held ambition.”

Worth noting that Balls’ version of his 10p tax debate with Gordon differs markedly from what Seldon claimed in his book. A dangerously respected critic for Balls.

Via @politicshomeuk

Party funding figures for the last quarter are out. Excluding public money, between October and December last year the Tories received £3,309,109 in donations, Labour £2,592,885 and the LibDems just £570,959. The three biggest donors were Unite, Unison and the GMB, who funnelled over £1.5 million of their gold to you know who. Things don’t change…

Guido understands the Labour leader will be journeying south to help out his joke candidate John O’Farrell tomorrow.

And this time he’s armed with an actual policy…

What a difference a few years makes. Here is Ed Miliband in 2008, defending Gordon Brown’s abolition of the 10p tax rate:

“When you make a big set of changes in the tax system, some people do lose out. That is a matter of regret. Of course it is. But overall these changes make the tax system fairer.”

In 2008 he agreed it was fair, now Ed and Ed are landing their old boss in it. “Gordon Brown was wrong”…

New BBC DG Tony Hall has announced a raft of changes to the Beeb’s senior team this morning. The stand out name is one James Purnell, the former Labour Work and Pensions secretary who famously quit the government in protest at the Prime Mentalist. He becomes the new Director of Strategy and Digital. Helen Boaden, suspended over the Jimmy Savile scandal, is made Director of Radio. Who says the BBC don’t look after their friends…

Back when they used to actually post stories, the Political Scrapbook team employed the services of Matt Zarb-Cousin, a lefty up-and-comer occasionally capable of scoring the odd point. Zarb-Cousin left Scrapbook to work as a researcher for Labour MPs Pamela Nash and Andy Slaughter, but sadly things didn’t quite work out. Now he seems to spend most of his time working as a lobbyist for the anti-bookies Campaign for Fairer Gambling. Why, then, does he still hold a parliamentary pass?

Guido contacted Nash’s office to ask for an explanation, but they had never heard of Zarb-Cousin. “He definitely, definitely doesn’t work in this office”, Guido was told, “he might be a friend of Pamela’s”. No wonder, it turns out Zarb-Cousin hasn’t worked for Nash since 2011, despite the fact that he still holds a parliamentary pass under her name, which he continues to use regularly in his job as an anti-gambling lobbyist. Naughty.

Zarb-Cousin has confirmed to Guido he has used the pass to access Parliament in his capacity at Fairer Gambling, and that he takes a wage from the organisation: “since it is not a commercially-motivated campaign I don’t consider myself a lobbyist, so I didn’t think I’d have to declare it. It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have kept hold of the pass”. Nash isn’t happy, she tells Guido: “I was not aware he was still using his parliamentary pass and have instructed the Pass Office to deactivate the pass immediately”. How many more lobbyists have access based on their interpretation of the rules around influencing MPs?

The man who succeeded Tony Blair as Labour’s MP for Sedgefield is facing some pretty searching questions over his donations today. Phil Wilson has brought up Hitachi’s new factory in the House on no less than 22 separate occasions, coincidentally receiving over £10,000 in donations from Hitachi and the site’s developer. Tory MP John Glen has now reported him to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner:

Dear Ms Hudson,

I am writing to draw your attention to a potential breach of the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament, with regard to the declaration of financial interests.

On the 23^rd January 2013, Phil Wilson MP registered a donation of £5,700 from Hitachi Rail Europe Ltd, and on the 31^st January 2013 registered a donation of £5,700 from Merchant Place Developments.

 In a Parliamentary debate on the 31^st January, Mr Wilson spoke about Hitachi’s new factory in Newton Aycliffe, on a site developed by Merchant Place Developments. At no time did he draw attention to his entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

The Code of Conduct clearly states that, ‘a financial interest should be declared if it might reasonably be thought by others to influence the speech, representation or communication in question’. I note that Mr Wilson has mentioned Hitachi’s investment on no less than 22 separate occasions in Parliament, and lobbied Ministers in its favour. Clearly it is a matter of public interest to know whether or not there was any expectation of future financial interest when he made these speeches.

Of course it is entirely appropriate for Members to draw attention to successful businesses in their constituencies, particularly those that contribute to the decline in unemployment that the UK is experiencing under this government. However, where a Member has received significant political donation from a company, it is essential for transparency and public faith in Parliament for this to be made clear so that they may judge a Member’s remarks in that context.

Yours sincerely,

John Glen MP

One to keep an eye on…