Guido has been trying to get to the bottom of yesterday’s story about the Liberal Democrat MP who is letting her lobbyist husband roam free around parliament. Lorely Burt denied that her husband Richard, of BTP Advisers, had a researchers pass, despite him being on her list of staff, and said he did not have to declare his dodgy international lobbying interests to Parliament as he was on a spouse pass. BTP Advisers is so dodgy that it is not even a member of any of the supposedly self-regulating lobbyist trade bodies.

However Guido understands he also had a taxpayer funded “@parliament.uk” email address and wonders why witnesses have seen him coming in and out of the estate entertaining various guests.  He was told by the pass office however that this was all fine and dandy as there are no rules regulating spouses, even when they are clearly subverting democracy with their unhindered access. Guido smells a scandal, which other couples are exploiting this loophole?

N.B. Tip to Richard Burt, for someone with “extensive media skills” you should know that avoiding Guido’s calls won’t make him go away.