It’s fair to say Press TV are pretty chuffed with George Galloway’s win in Blackburn Bradford. And now they have their eyes on a bigger prize for another of their payroll candidates:

“Some supporters contacted Press TV, as a major force behind Galloway’s election win, hoping the same would happen to the British politician, Ken Livingstone, who is running for the post of Mayor of London. Livingstone has been recently under fire from British media for his regular cooperation with Press TV.”

With friends like these…

With half the Shadow Cabinet descending on Birmingham this morning there was one very obvious face missing from Ed’s May election campaign launch. How odd that local MP and potential Mayor of Birmingham Liam Byrne was not on the platform, or even invited. Guido has been tipped that there was a row about Byrne, with Labour’s “Campaign Coordinator” (and rival candidate supporting) Tom Watson blocking Baldamort’s attendance.

Though Byrne’s people are denying it, he somehow ended up spending the day in Harlow…

Ed Miliband has finally snuck his list of donor’s dinners out. A Friday afternoon data dump is always a sure sign that you don’t want too much digging  to be done. The meetings are overwhelmingly with his union paymasters but there are at least two “predators” welcomed in to break bread in his own home. With just one glance there are glaring gaps in the list, for example it shows a meeting with on 9 February with £100,000 donor Assem Allam, but not the meeting he had with him on the 10 March. The one we know about because he was photographed arriving at it in a Royles Royce instead of attending an NHS rally. How many other donors did not make the cut?

There is still no mention of Ed’s secret off the record meeting with the shady spinmeister Roland Rudd. Rudd organised meetings between Ed and business types and is a Labour donor through his firm Finsbury. Why has this not been reported here, and why when Ed promised live on TV to release the list of attendees, has this still not happened?

Unite assistant General Secretary Diana Holland is getting a lot of coverage today due to the ongoing chaos her union is threatening, not over the price of fuel but how much money already well paid drivers get to distribute it. What the TV news seem to be ignoring is that she is also the Treasurer of the Labour Party.

Labour try to suggest the connection to their biggest donor is arms length, but Holland is about as plugged in as they come. Her husband Joe Irvine was a Commander of the Forces of Hell as Brown’s Political Secretary and also the “brains” behind Ed Balls For Leader. Cosy!

Labour insiders are clucking this morning as the news from Bradford sets in. As Guido mentioned earlier plenty of blame is being dripped out in the direction of General Secretary Iain McNicol, but others are fighting back. One man seems to be suspiciously quiet on the subject and has been all campaign: Tom Watson. As Labour’s “Deputy Party Chairman and Campaign Coordinator”,  he was in charge of this spectacular cock up.

Questions are being asked about why he has spent the week frothing about Panorama damp squibs and sitting around on Twitter instead of leading from the front. Given the number of Mayor and Police Commissioner elections coming up that will involve current MPs, the list of by-elections this year is growing. Too late to do anything about it now though…

UPDATE:

Re two Labour source quotes I've posted – seems to be serious consternation in Labour over Bradford loss – and real anger in some quarters—
Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) March 30, 2012

UPDATE II: Witnesses report that Tom Watson spent the day in the House yesterday. He was spotted having a long chat with disgraced former Labour MP Denis MacShane. Why wasn’t he on the ground getting out the vote?

UPDATE III: Instead of campaigning in Bradford in the all important weekend before polling, Watson went to the ”Guardian Open Weekend” and shared a platform with fellow media luvvies Amelia Hill, Alan Rusbridger and Nick Davies. He cares more about self promotion than his job as Campaign Coordinator.

Really pleased to have today been shortlisted for the selection in Manchester Central. It's a real honour. Good luck to others too.—
Lucy Powell (@LucyMPowell) March 28, 2012

Guido will eat his hat if Lucy Powell does not win the Labour selection process for Manchester Central. Ed’s Deputy Chief of Staff is in a bit of a pickle though. Given that she somehow managed to work her way  onto the controversial new party executive board, how is her selection going to look like anything other than a stitch up? This one doesn’t appear to have been thought through…

Things are getting steamy down on the ground in Bradford with George Galloway threatening to sue the Labour Party for texts that are being bombarded to voters. There is no proof the Labour campaign had anything to do with them and they deny the accusation. Now today Galloway supporters are fighting back and a message urging people to vote Respect is doing the rounds with some bitter words for the Labour candidate:

“Muslims of Bradford! Watch the Sunday Politics yorkshire and lincolnshire programme on BBC iPlayer (43min-47min) and watch the TRAITOR, and SELLOUT Imran Hussain (labour candidate) support British troops to continue their occupation of Afghanistan, despite his own party leaders position on withdrawing from Afghanistan. See for yourself and vote Respect, the party that is actually speaking up for the loss of innocent muslims lives…”

With Galloway’s odds tightening, polling day tomorrow could be a tense affair…

UPDATE: Ladbrokes have suspended betting on a Galloway win.

With Miliband and Balls twisting the knife by going to Greggs for lunch, Cameron’s claims to have had a pasty at Leeds station are looking increasingly dodgy:

West Cornwall Pasty store at Leeds station closed 31 March 2007—
JamesLyons (@MirrorJames) March 28, 2012

Network Rail tells me now NO pasty shops in Leeds station – Cornish Bakehouse stopped trading Mar 23 2012—
Emily Ashton (@elashton) March 28, 2012

It’s shaping out to be a terrible week. And it’s only Wednesday…

UPDATE: PM’s spokesman says “maybe it wasn’t even Leeds”.

Liam Byrne is "agonising", a friend says, over whether to go for Labour nomination for Mayor of Birmingham. Odds are he will.—
Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) March 27, 2012

Michael Crick has finally caught up with what Guido told you in Daily Star Sunday on 11 March:

LEAVING the Treasury after Labour’s General Election defeat, the Birmingham MP Liam Byrne famously left a note for his successor which simply read: “Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left.” After the uproar this joke caused, Byrne, right, kept his bald head down as a backroom figure for Ed Miliband. Dubbed “Baldamort” by David Cameron, he wants to escape what could be a long opposition. We hear Byrne is being encouraged by the likes of Alan Johnson to seek Labour’s nomination as the candidate for Mayor of Birmingham. Labour sources seem almost certain he will throw his hat in the Bull-ring. With Brum having a budget of £3.5billion, though, that note might yet come back to haunt him.

It doesn’t say much for the leadership when the person in charge of the policy review for the Labour Party has had enough and is ready to jump ship. A bit like the Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party quitting to go and be a police commissioner… 

Well in his head at least…

See also: EMAIL LEAK: Balls’ Spinner Admits “Screw Up” But Briefs Opposite