While the village enjoys a day of bun fighting about unions and Sure-Start centres, how better to escape the toil of the frontline than heading north to Marble Arch for a long relaxing lunch at Locanda Locatelli. Over the £30 per plate coniglio arrosto, or the tagliatelle di castagne ai funghi selvatici Sarah Brown lunched with her husband’s very own dodgy, expenses fiddling, pension raiding, non-dom donor, Lord Swraj Paul. Unusually for Sarah, she hasn’t tweeted this.

Labour have tried to distance themselves from Lord Paul, who Gordon made a Privy Counsellor, despite no obvious qualifications beside deep pockets. To have their “secret weapon” Sarah grinning through anecdotes and stories shows just how keen they are to keep their purse-string holder happy. Wonder who picked up the cheque?

Hat-tip: EyeSpyMP (with a little help from Photoshop).

UPDATE : The Eye Spies inform us that the long lunch finished at three thirty. Something tells Guido that Sarah wouldn’t have been so quick to tweet about her outing had she not been busted with Labour’s persona non grata.  Kids? He is the Labour Party’s piggy bank more like…

Transport Minister Sadiq Khan is in hot water this afternoon after it has been revealed that he lied to the press and to the Parliamentary authorities. He is paying back £2,500. Having had over a grands worth of greeting card receipts rightly rejected from his Communications Allowance claims, Khan then went back to the printers and had them create a new receipt, for the same amount, but without the birthday cards itemised on them. This fraudulent receipt was then accepted by the Fees Office.

Blatant and deliberate deception by the “Right Honourable” Minister.

Khan has form in this area, he had to pay back another £1,000 in  2007 for a Communications Allowance funded newsletter plastered in Labour roses. In November 2007 he told The Telegraph “I personally pay for the cost of sending out birthday cards to some of my constituents who turn 18.” A blatant “mistruth” given he made two claims, one for Diwali and Eid cards in December 2005 and one for 18^th birthday cards in January 2006. A cocktail of lies, deception and dodgy paperwork. Ministers have resigned for less.

Click here to view John Lyon’s full response to the complaint.

The Sunday Times has been digging into Labour donor Willie Haughey’s Links to Cocaine City Councillor, which seem unhealthy.  Scottish Labour’s biggest donor does a heck of a lot of profitable business with Labour controlled Glasgow City Council.  It smells.

Co-conspirators have been emailing background and leads on this story which have been difficult for Guido to follow-up, which is a shame because the Scottish press seems timid.  The Scottish press skirted delicately round the issue of Purcell’s cocaine addiction.  Strathclyde police say no official complaint has been received.  Watch this space.

Ben Wallace MP, Tory shadow spokesman for Scotland, says…

“Scotland’s biggest Labour donor is in receipt of millions of pounds of Labour-controlled government funds. It’s back to the old Labour days: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

Sticking with the International Women’s Day theme, Guido had to chuckle when he saw that Jo Swinson, the chairman of the Liberal Democrat’s “Real Women” campaign, will be chairing a panel of feminists today. The Campaign for Body Confidence will look into “combating body image pressure felt by women and girls today.” Funny Ms. Swinson doesn’t quite practice what she preaches. Was it body image pressure that led her to claim a £27.94 receipt from Boots, including £5 for eyeliner, a £5 lip liner and £12 for “R&M Eye Kit” on her expenses? Not forgetting the electric toothbrush and hair-dryer. The Fees Office drew the line at the £19.10 tooth flosser.

After Guido’s story yesterday about the controversial and murky “Friends of Speaker Bercow“ fund-raising group, it seems a member of UKIP in the Speaker’s constituency has put a complaint in to John Lyon about a letter he received. Guido imagines Bercow wouldn’t have been so stupid to have used the Speaker’s stationary to beg for money, but the secretary of the fund has said Bercow was responsible for drawing up and passing on names. If the allegations that potential donors were invited to the Palace of Westminster are investigated then this could be a serious problem for the embattled squeaker…

Phil Heatley, a politician in New Zealand immediately tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister when it appeared that a $70 receipt for two bottles of wine at a party conference had been accidently claimed on his expenses. Heatley told the press “I believe I’ve failed to live up my own standard and for that I’m embarrassed and immensely sorry.” He immediately repaid the money.

In other news it is thought that over £100,000 of the £1.2 million set to be repaid by British MPs is still outstanding, three MPs are awaiting trial and some of the worst troughers are still in government.

Labour’s non-dom donor Lord Paul, who was stripped of his job in government due to fiddling his expenses, personally bankrolled Gordon’s leadership campaign and has promised all the money required to fight an election campaign. And it’s not like he can’t afford it. Paul made his millions through steel conglomerate Caparo. Hardly a man of the people, or indeed cut from the Labour Party cloth, a party he claims to love and support (ever since he stopped donating to the Tories under Thatcher). Just a brief look at how he treated his workers would be enough to send shivers down the spine of any loyal Labour activist.

Back in 1989 the Caparo took control of the cash-rich Armstrong Engineering. The company’s pension fund was just over 30% in surplus. Under Lord Paul’s control Caparo then spent the better part of a decade refusing to top up the fund despite the fact that it was having to pay out over £6 million due to a early retirements and a redundancy program, this was on top of the £8 million it was already paying to retirees. Lord Paul’s ownership created a fourteen million pound hole in the companies pension funds.

By 2000 the pension trustees and accountants recommended that the company inject  £2 million a year into the pension pot to plug the cap. Paul accepted however Caparo never made a single payment and instead announced in 2002 that the final salary pension scheme was to be frozen. The unions slammed this “appalling treatment” by Lord Paul of his workers and inevitably picket lines were formed.  As with Robert Maxwell’s raiding of pension funds, the Mirror, the paper most read by trade unionists, remains silent and hasn’t reported a word about Lord Paul so far.  Kevin Maguire, the Mirror’s political editor is as close to Downing Street as any journalist, has only recently conceded that the Labour Party should not be taking money from Lord Paul.

With Gordon’s own pension raiding activities, it is perhaps no surprise that the Prime Minster is so at ease accepting donations from a man who profits by raiding the pension schemes of his workers. The money that should be in the pockets of loyal steel workers is now propping up the declining bank balance of the Labour Party via Lord Paul’s off shore bank accounts…

Earlier last week Guido highlighted Lord Swarj Paul and promised he would be returning to the subject. Osborne was on Sky News this morning and was pushed over Lord Ashcroft’s tax status. Osborne eventually retorted that Labour politicians were never questioned about Lord Paul.

Lord Paul provided some 20% of the funding for Gordon’s leadership campaign and the billionaire has promised “that if there is an election and the money is wanted, whatever I can pay I will. I am a believer in Gordon Brown and his leadership..”.  When Labour supporters discover how Lord Paul made his fortune they will be dismayed…

UPDATE : Guido has been needling that friend of the workers, Kevin Maguire, on this issue.*  Our Kev never misses a chance to have a go at Lord Ashcroft, yet has been silent about Lord Paul.   He has just tweeted that “Lab[our] shouldn’t take his dosh”.  Progress. Perhaps he has now had a look into Lord Paul himself…

*Before anyone asks, Guido has long said Ashcroft should come clean.  See here, here and here.

Non-domiciled Lord Paul of Marylebone, donated over £355,000 to Labour and £45,000 directly into Gordon’s 2007 leadership campaign. Despite his huge wealth he still found it appropriate to claim £38,000 from the taxpayers in Lord’s accommodation expenses despite, by his own admission, having never spent a night in the property.  He is reportedly set to quit the House of Lords, not over his expense claims, but to avoid tax.

Lord Paul has been Brown’s very own non-dom donor and has been repaid handsomely by Labour with a peerage, membership of the Privy Council and until his recent expenses scandal was the Deputy Leader of the House of Lords. So close is Lord Paul to Gordon that he was willing to personally bankroll the autumn election that never happened in 2007. Paul said “All I know is that if there is an election and the money is wanted, whatever I can pay I will. I am a believer in Gordon Brown and his leadership, and I think he’s the best person in the country.” Hence Guido’s amusement today to hear that Paul is ready to jump ship.  He is considering whether to give up his seat in the Lords to avoid having to pay tax in the UK. Which shows where his priorities really lay…

Labour has attacked Lord Ashcroft while turning a blind eye to the activities of one of their biggest donors. Lord Paul has refused to pay tax in this country yet is greeted with open arms by the Labour leadership desperate to get their grubby fingers on some of his controversially raised fortune.  Paul is ranked the 88th richest man, living, in the UK.  This nom-dom, expenses fiddling, conglomerate owning peer has some interesting skeletons in his cupboard to which Guido will be returning. How he amassed his fortune will turn the stomachs of many Labour supporters…