Anneliese Dodds wrote to the Tories yesterday asking a number of questions, including whether Menzies’ behaviour was “common practice for Conservative party MPs”. The Tories’ overall majority dropping from 80 to 43 goes some way to answering that question…

An anecdote Guido heard yesterday might explain some of those “personal expenses”. Some years ago Menzies brought an attractive young man onto the Parliamentary estate. One gay Tory MP was so outraged to see the two swanning around in the Strangers’ Bar that he stormed up to the whips’ office to demand they take action and come straight down and reprimand Menzies for his behaviour .“It’s outrageous he’s parading around parliament with a rent boy”, he told Anne Milton, a whip who was a former nurse was not easily outraged. Drily she responded “How do YOU know he’s a rent boy?“