Morley pocketed £30,428 by claiming for a phantom mortgage and inflating the amount he was previously paying. He filled out a total of 40 forms relating to payments for his home. In total, he claimed £16,800 on a phantom mortgage and £15,200 after inflating the amount he was previously paying, for which he should have been entitled to only £1,572. David Laws filled out the same forms and claimed some £56,000 to which he was not entitled…

Lord Neuberger, the Master of the Rolls, whose report on super-injunctions is out today, will help determine if Britain is to have a free press or not in the future.

Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Britain, he has given the Labour Party over £2 million in donations. Since 2008 it has been an offence punishable by imprisonment to even say he has a super-injunction. Why? What is it about? You shall not know. Editors fear his wealth and the wrath of judges. Do we really want a country where journalists fear imprisonment for writing the truth?

In 1948 Britain helped draft the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 19 declares:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

No judge should presume to dare to take away our rights in order to protect the privacy of the rich and powerful. If France had less stringent privacy laws and a less craven press, Dominique Strauss-Kahn might not have got away with doing what he has done for years. The freedom of the press is a check on the powerful and a restraint on them. This is not about Ryan Giggs’ sex-life, it is about knowing the truth about the powerful. Remember Lakshmi Mittal when privacy advocates attack “tittle-tattle”.

Simon Jenkins writes that loss of privacy…

“…is the tax that a free society imposes on celebrity. In the case of politicians it is an ordeal which they must undergo as the price of office.”

LibDem sources are starting to twist the knife:

‘The conventional wisdom is that Huhne will end up having to go. He is being highly reckless in taking it to the wire like this. Chris clearly doesn’t think they will find the evidence. He wants to brazen it out. He is brazen. That’s what he does.”

The Mail is reporting this afternoon that Carina Trimingham was not the first mistress Huhne had. That should keep Vicky Pryce on the warpath…

UPDATE 17.38: Essex Police have just confirmed they are launching a formal investigation. Essex Police statement:

“An investigation is ongoing in relation to the circumstances surrounding the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice in 2003. It would be inappropriate for the police to discuss this matter any further in order to avoid prejudicing the investigation. Essex Police request that the press are mindful of this in their reporting.”

Game over.

Yesterday, Labour’s claims about government health advisors came unstuck at PMQs, but that’s not the only stunt they have pulled this week to backfire. Guido thought he recognised a familiar face the other day when Ed Miliband visited the Brocklebank Health Centre in Wandsworth on Monday:

Dr Tom Coffey is the head GP there and he hosted Ed Miliband for a chat about how bad and evil the NHS reforms are:

Miliband got some good footage out of the event, suggesting that he had been talking with concerned staff etcetera, and Labour’s bashing of the plans continued. But should he have declared an interest here?

Another staffer at the clinic refused to meet with Ed on the visit and tells Guido he wasn’t alone. In fact he’s become a bit sick of Tom Coffey and his visitors, because this was no ordinary PR stunt where the politician finds a concerned individual to champion. It all seems rather familiar, and that’s not surprising when you look who visited in 2009:

Look how Coffey appeared in Labour Party election literature:

He even shared a platform with Blair and Brendan Barber:

You could say he was one of Labour’s own.

Guido understands that there isn’t much love for Coffey amongst other local GPs, who are envious of the huge sums he is making. A council question went in a couple of months ago asking how many GPs in Wandsworth made more that £100,000 and how many made more than £200,000.  Only one made more than £200,000 –  and Guido’s source confirms it is our boy.

Funnily enough Dr Coffey has popped up supporting health reforms in the past, yet as soon as the government changed he started slamming them. Guido’s sources tell him that Coffey is always willing to open his doors to allow the Labour Party to campaign on taxpayer funded time and property. And what has his reward been?

He had dinner with Blair at Downing Street in November 2004, which must have been nice. But even more was to be bestowed upon this loyal apparatchik. Coffey received an OBE just two months before the end of the last government. 

So here we have a doctor with his mouth stuffed full of taxpayers’ gold, doing his utmost to campaign for the Labour Party, on taxpayer funded property and time. He’s then gonged up and wined and dined for his services. In shock news, he doesn’t like Tories. It makes Miliband’s pained expression look a little fake…

Lord Oakeshott, through a proxy, said in the House of Lords earlier:

“Would [the speaker] accept that every taxpayer has a direct public interest in the events leading up to the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland? So how can it be right for a superinjunction to hide the alleged relationship between Sir Fred Goodwin and a senior colleague? If true it would be a serious breach of corporate governance and not even the Financial Services Authority would know about it.”

In March Guido told you about it, but had to adhere slightly to the courts. Sorry if you couldn’t quite work it out:

“So there was this ****** bloke who worked closely with another ****** colleague, they apparently began an adulterous affair not long after the ****ing crisis of 2008. He went to Court to stop it getting out that he had been banging her. Because he is the most notorious ****** of his generation he also banned references to his profession lest he be identified.”

Well that went well for Fred didn’t it? Worth every penny…