Whenever Guido has warned in the past that the LibDem’s dirty money from Michael Brown could end up costing them dearly, LibDem supporters have gone beserk in the comments section. Well facts are facts, the money was the proceeds of a fraud and Guido calculates that the 77,000 members may have to cough up £31 each (excluding interest repayments). The victims of the fraud have the recourse of suing for the return of their money and the Electoral Commission now says it will be “reviewing carefully the High Court judgment of Oct 11 and considering what bearing this may have on the permissibility of the donations made to the Liberal Democrats.”

The Electoral Commission previously stated that if the donor’s company was a genuine British trading company, the donation was permitted under their rules (although the fraud victims would still have their own recourse to the money). Mr Justice Cooke ruled that “There was no trading and the scheme was fraudulent from its inception.” Get your cheque books ready…