With lobbying top of the agenda and  Nick Clegg on his high horse, last week Guido brought you news of a LibDem with an unusual parliamentary pass that they denied was ever used inappropriately. This morning Edward Lord has accused Guido of an “unfortunate and highly inaccurate attack”, writing to colleagues at the City of London claiming that the piece had been given a “full rebuttal”. Not quite – the word Rwanda was replaced with Uzbekistan.

Lord denies that his parliamentary pass was anything to do with his work for the  European Azerbaijan Society. On his own website he claims to have stood down from the society in November 2011, which does little to help his case given the fact that his pass sponsor, Lord Kilclooney, was flown all expenses paid to Azerbaijan in May of that year. Kilcloony even went again the following year. As the above picture shows, Edward Lord remains a strong advocate for the republic. The Mail have more on Kilcloony and other sinister connections to the country. Passes and free holidays. A coincidence, no doubt.