Lots of focus, lobbying and abuse today for the Tories who are rebelling against the wishes of their leader and voting against gay marriage tonight at seven. However, very little attention has been given to the Labour MPs who are against the bill. Luckily LabourList have put together a handy list. They are  Joe Benton, Sir Tony Cunningham, Jim Dobbin, Brian Donohoe, Robert Flello, Mary Glindon, Roger Godsiff, Rt Hon Paul Goggins, Michael McCann, Jim McGovern, Austin Mitchell, Rt Hon Paul Murphy, Stephen Pound and Jim Sheridan. Plus there are three convenient abstentions from Alex Cunningham, Gavin Shuker and Rt Hon Stephen Timms. It’s right it should be a free vote and there is no way it won’t pass. The Lords is where the real fight will come though.

I apologise for inappropriate retweet last pm 1/2—
Debbie Abrahams (@Debbie_abrahams) January 22, 2013

A good shout after Guido’s story yesterday. Now, about that misleading of the House…

As Guido reported in Sunday’s column, Labour backs have been put up by the promotion of Sadiq Khan to Shadow London Minister. The “No He Khant” slogan for Khan’s anticipated 2016 London Mayoral campaign is catching on. Meanwhile Guido has been passed some irregularities in Khan’s donations and Register of Members Interests. Fancy that…

According to Khan’s Register of Interests he took £3,000 at the last election from Matthew Ryder, the lefty lawyer at Matrix who lost the case bought by Chris Huhne’s former bi-sexual lover against the Mail, for calling her former bi-sexual. However, by the time Khan got round to declaring this donation to the Electoral Commission, it had doubled to £6,000. Which is odd…

Commons rules state that “Members are responsible for making a full disclosure of their interests” and regular readers will remember Harriet Harman’s husband Jack Dromey had to apologise to the House for incorrectly declaring payments this time last year. Like when he was busted with dubious expenses receipts, Khan will likely play the clerical error card. However the question remains - what happened to the other £3,000?

A fun spat is rumbling on between Labour MP Kevan Jones and the Brandon Lewis, the junior minister at the Department of Local Government. After DCLG put out a guide to saving money in Local Government before Christmas, Jones has decided to spend the new year testing the department on whether they meet their own standards on waste. Unfortunately for him, his Written Questions scatter-gunning is not really working. Plenty of answers of zilch, but also plenty of snowballs back in Kevan’s face:

Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what costs his Department incurred in respect of staff canteens since May 2010. [135396]
Brandon Lewis: The Department for Communities and Local Government has a staff canteen at its headquarters, Eland House. The facility is a non-subsidised, directly-operated outlet by the Department’s facilities management supplier. DCLG has held a ‘Nil subsidy’ policy for the Eland House staff canteen since May 2010 and the facility has been run at no cost to the Department.

-

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has spent on potted plants and flowers since May 2010; and what the nature of such expenditure was. [135273]
Brandon Lewis: Unlike the last Government, we do not spend taxpayers’ money on pot plants or the display of cut flowers. The incoming Administration terminated the contract for internal departmental plants in September 2010. This contract had been signed under the last Administration by the (then) Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and was costing taxpayers almost £7,000 a year. I also refer the hon. Member to the answer of 28 June 2011, Official Report, column 731W, on the Audit Commission’s £6,500 flower display bill under the last Administration; this was also terminated in September 2010.

Tory sources point out that while they are greatly enjoying highlighting how wasteful Labour were, they would like to point out that each question Jones puts down is costing the taxpayer £160. That’s an expensive fishing trip…

A minor Labour reshuffle today, with little of note. Miliband seems to have promoted some people Guido has never heard of, to jobs that nobody will listen to. Yvonne Fovargue and Lilian Greenwood go to the Shadow Transport team. Chi Onwurah MP moves from Shadow BIS to Shadow Cabinet Office. Alison McGovern  joins the Whips Office having been promoted from the strenuous job of Gordon’s PPS. As does Karl Turner, replacing Chris Ruane. Which is good, as he really likes shouting.

And now you know.

Bad news for Balls as Polly Toynbee says out-loud what many on the left are already thinking. How, when Balls is so tainted with economic disaster could he possibly remain as Shadow Chancellor for the next election?

By the same logic, surely Miliband is equally covered in the Brown-stuff?

If you take a stroll  past Chuka Umunna’s constituency office in Streatham today, you are greeted by this message:

And where is their saviour when you need him?

His villa in Ibiza perhaps? 

No, in fact he’s hosting another one of his parties tonight for media types instead of being there for his constituents. The only problem is that it seems not many of them want to go and the city agency that Umunna has outsourced running his party to are starting to flap:

Have now had three separate reminders for Chuka Umunna's media drinks tonight, which I'm not even going to—
James Quinn (@jamesrquinn) December 20, 2012

That’s what happens when you try to be all things to all people…

Godless, Christmas-less and just a bit odd…

Found a worse one? Get in touch…

Ed Balls blamed his stammer for getting his script wrong yesterday but he still did not have anything to say this morning:

“I’m not going to come on the Today programme within 24 hours and start making ex cathedra statements without taking a proper judgement”

That didn’t stop his boss doing just that when he recommended implementing Leveson in full, just five hours after receiving the 2,000 page document.

Guido cannot fault Jonathan Reynolds’ taste. The Labour MP told the House last night:

“Some of my favourite media sources are those that feature very different politics to mine. I like reading The Spectator and Guido Fawkes’s blog. I find them entertaining because they are witty and well written, and they do not simply mirror my own politics back at me. We want a lively press.”

Not so much with Reynolds’ red colleague Jim Dowd, who went off on one at those that will not bow to a state regulator:

“What these people are basically saying is that they are above the law. This parliament, the British public, can say what they like. If it does not meet their approval, they will not abide by it. That is the calibre, that is the type of people we’re dealing with and we cannot trust them to act in the public interest.”

Needless to say, the Spectator have had a thing or two to say about that. Guido is currently working on his “naughty and nice list” for this year. Sadly not many members actually turned up for yesterday’s debate so it’s tough to get an accurate picture. Despite that groundswell of public support for the topic…