Carina Trimingham turned heads on Thursday when she sat casually having lunch in Portcullis House. Whilst the speculation today is whether or not she was wearing an engagement ring, Guido is more concerned about what a lobbyist is doing having unmitigated access to Parliament.

She apparently has a spouses pass…

And it’s not just wives and girlfriends that get this perk. After two terms in the House, former MPs are entitled to a pass, meaning they can get access to the bars and restaurants and continue to live their subsidised life. So they can retire back to the countryside and have exclusive use of riverside restaurants and bars to entertain in whilst in town, without paying London prices. A nice perk, especially if you are seeking to influence decision makers…

It’s bad enough that we subsidise the public sector workers inside the Palace of Westminster, but can anyone really try to justify feeding and watering their spouses and predecessors?

The pre-announcement of an announcement does not bode too well…

Pilgrims are on the agenda in the People’s Republic of Lambeth tonight. The Red Council has been dodging Pilgrim FoIs for six months, but was finally forced to reveal that their annual bung to the unions costs Lambeth taxpayers over half a million quid a year – ten times that in neighbouring Wandsworth. Guess who doesn’t run that council.

The Tories have put down a  motion against the £317,517 a year that is spent on 9.7 full time equivalent Pilgrims representing the triumvirate of Unison, GMB, and Unite. Another  £141,411 is spent to support 2.6 full time equivalent Pilgrims  from the “teaching” unions – principally the NUT and NASUWT. Lambeth Labour have gone into full bulldozer mode. Have a look at the wrecking amendment to Motion 7 here.  They amend:

“Council is grateful that these costs have now been disclosed. However,members are appalled that in a time of budget reductions and austerity in the public sector Lambeth Council is paying £503,548 a year to subsidise trade union officials.”

To:

“Council is grateful that these costs have now been disclosed. However, members recognise that in a time of budget reductions and austerity in the public sector paying trade union officials is a cost effective way to deal with industrial relations in the workplace. Massive cuts, too far too fast, forced on Lambeth by the government have resulted in unprecedented staff changes and restructurings where unions play an important role in scrutinising job plans, making amendments and supporting individual members through life changing decisions. They also perform excellent work on health and safety and basic skills training at minimal cost to council.”

Brazen.

Oh this just keeps getting better and better. Labour sources get in touch to point out that Kevin Lee has recently, and very quietly, been appointed Andy Burnham’s Political Adviser. That’s right, a man with business interests in health is crafting lines for Labour like “NHS not for sale”. Almost vintage Labour irony… 

As one insider dryly observed: “Burnham gives well paid job without interview to mate who he owes £20,000″. Does that smell odd to anyone else? So Andy…

• Where was the job advertised?
• How many people were interviewed for it?
• Why was the job given to Mr Lee?
• What assurances were sought regarding Mr Lee’s private interests in the NHS?
• Why has Mr Lee not declared that he owes you £21,000 in the Register of Members’ Staff Interests?
• When are you going to pay your adviser back the £21,000 you owe him?

Answers on a inappropriate business card…

Guido had to chuckle the other day when he saw Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham press releasing “our NHS is not for sale”. Not only did Burnham play a vital role in the ongoing privatisation of the NHS, but closer to home he’s not averse to taking a little private-sector cash. He has been up to his neck in putting amendments down to legislation on behalf of his donors and now this whole attack line is about to look even sillier…

Guido likes to keep an eye on the Register of Members’ Interests, in particular the interests of members’ staff and the passholders they sponsor. Burnham has given a pass to one Mr Kevin Lee, a former Labour Party staffer linked to the Shadow Health Secretary in the past. Lee was the pro-bono Campaign Director for Burnham’s abortive Labour leadership bid in 2010. Coincidentally Lee “loaned“ the campaign £21,000 and spoke publicly on its behalf. They are close friends…

Kevin Lee is also the Managing Director of Lee Communications and Public Affairs Ltd - which he set up in August 2009 – just one month after Andy Burnham became Health Secretary. This is where it starts getting a little murky; Lee Communications have multiple NHS clients such as the Southwark, Trafford and North East Essex Primary Care Trusts as well as the East of England Strategic Health Authority for good measure. Lucky boy…

Rather foolishly Lee is all over the internet boasting about his connections to Burnham. Apparently he’s a master of “liais[ing] with senior politics at all levels of government… arrangement of client meetings with government Ministers”. Apparently he has “contacts” to help “engage politicians” and “influence key decision-makers”. And those contacts are in his pocket – Guido understands Burnham’s leadership loans have not yet been repaid. 

Firstly why has a lobbyist got a parliamentary pass, in direct conflict with rules? Why was it only given to him recently?

Secondly, what on earth is the Shadow Health Secretary doing giving a lobbyist, with health clients, unfettered access to the parliamentary estate?

Is he an adviser or aide, or is this just Burnham’s way of repaying the loans? Even if the money had been repaid, the pass is still a massive breach of protocol.

Dodgy credentials, a close relationship, along with the suspicious lobbying firm with a similar brief to the politician? It all smells a bit… Werritty.

Guido was wondering which Sunday would get this, but it seems Russia Today have somehow scooped them:

“Are you a spy?”

“No”

“Did you have any contact with Russian security?”

“Well I explained my contact was Boris…”

Glad we cleared that one up then…

The judge in the Katia Zatuliveter case says she was prone to what “was little more than a late teenage crush”. Not the first time the self-confessed teen fondler has got himself in that situation…

On the day Guido brings you the news that Mike Hancock is off to his favourite country in the whole wide world, the Indy reports that the lusty LibDem, while on the Defence Select Committee, got lobbyists to bung cash to his assistant. The same one that is facing deportation for spying. And he was sleeping with. A picture of the two having late night West End cocktails has been floating around for a couple of months and today Guido can bring you two more pics, from the same night:

Staring into each others eyes, sipping red cocktails, dreaming of the motherland…

There was audible gasps of righteous indignation from the Labour benches when Cameron sung the praises of the Taxpayers’ Alliance at PMQs today. He quipped that at least they didn’t pay to put down amendments. Another happy reader…

Displaying some brass-neck worthy of her lover, Guido understands that Carina Trimingham, with Huhne, turned up to a meeting last night for victims of tabloid intrusion. She must have known by last night that the broadsheet Times were going for her, and rightfully so. They’ve got hold of an email job application that abuses her relationship with the troubled Secretary of State in order to further her career … as a lobbyist:

She got a job…