Yesterday, Guido covered the implosion of Liam Byrne’s West Midlands mayoral campaign; one aspect of which is the persistent accusation he’s misusing public money by having his expenses-paid parliamentary staff help run his election campaign efforts. Guido fears IPSA are likely to investigate. If they do, the expenses watchdog may find this history of Liam Byrne’s previous expenses escapades worth bearing in mind. It’s far from glittering:

• Since 2010, he’s claimed over £1.9 million in expense, nearly £6,000 in ‘bonuses’ and potentially up to £45,000 paid to his wife
• Byrne claimed nearly £2,000 of taxpayers’ money for a second home he neither bought nor rented (2009)
• In 2011, he claimed the second-highest total of expenses for any MP
• Claimed the maximum permissible amount of expenses under the additional costs allowance over two financial years while switching between various luxury flats in London (2004 & 2005)
• Submitted claims for room service food in hotels, which were rejected by the Fees Office (2009)
• Claimed £150 in rail upgrades so he could get a first-class seat rather than standing up in crowded standard-class carriages (2011)
• Claimed £260 for a Times subscription, despite MPs and their staff having free access to the paper (2019)
• Attempted to claim £50.92 in expenses for an airbed, having it turned down when the fees office asked whether it was for his own personal use (2009)

Woe betide the Commons Fees Office when they do dare turn down any of Byrne’s requests as well, given his history of complaining when expenses aren’t approved. In 2017, Byrne left taxpayers with a £30,000 bill after taking IPSA to tribunal over their failure to pay £1,853 for leaflets that were “political in nature”. He also complained after IPSA rejected a £525 claim for a speechwriter to write a political speech, and when they rejected a £500 claim for political newsletters.

Byrne has a history of abusing both the spirit and the letter of MPs expenses, and Guido can’t imagine the Birmingham MP would blink twice at now misusing public funds to fight his collapsing mayoral campaign. IPSA are likely to investigate Byrne again for a breach of section 16 of the Code of Conduct, all it takes is a complaint from a consituent or another MP to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards …

Labour’s West Midlands Metro Mayor campaign appears to be in trouble, as the unlucky former Treasury minister Liam Byrne loses staff members, he appears to also be running out of cash and using his MPs’ expenses to fund the running of his election efforts. To sum up his campaign using his own infamous memo, “I’m afraid there is no money”…

According to leaked emails seen by Skwawkbox, the MP candidate has been accused of using his publicly-funded parliamentary staff to run his mayoral campaign according to an NEC complaint made against him by a former staff member. The complainant accuses their former employer of withholding £11,000 of salary.

Liam’s staff records seem to back this accusation up. His ‘constituency assistant’ described his primary role on LinkedIn as “managing” Liam’s “campaigns”, with very little of the job description appearing to fit the definition of parliamentary work. This advert makes it clear Byrne is deliberately and brazenly siphoning off public funds meant for parliamentary work, for his private political campaigns:

Byrne’s former parliamentary ‘head of research’ also professes to having “developed local policy” for his West Midlands mayoral campaign. 

There are also reports of “half” of Byrne’s team leaving, resulting in his parliamentary staff having to pick up the slack and work full time on his mayoral election. Guido doesn’t find this hard to believe judging by the complete lack of proofreading in his latest leaflets; the latest one sent into Guido last week featured 21 separate typos. In 2008 it was revealed Byrne had an 11-page dossier on what he expects from staff, including “If I see things that are not of acceptable quality, I will blame you.” How times change…

Readers will remember earlier this week Guido pointed out Barry Gardiner sharing a friendly with all round tosser Liu Xiaoming. Guido can reveal that another of the remarkably few politicians who waved goodbye to the genocide denying diplomat, was none other than Labour’s Liam Byrne. The self-styled ‘Shadow Mayor of the West Midlands’ sat beaming in front of his garish and lower case “liam byrne for metro mayor” background…

This isn’t the first time Byrne has shown a cosiness to China. In the mid 2010s, he authored “Turning To Face the East” – still available on Amazon – where Byrne prophesied that:

“Britain now confronts a choice. To muddle through and get by with old allies or fast forward and resolve to prosper in the Asian century.”

Guido prefers the old allies, personally.

Labour’s Liam Byrne struck an unforgiving tone on yesterday’s West Midlands Politics Live, calling out those who have protested during the pandemic, and even backing a stricter response from the police against those who break the spirit and letter of the stay at home rules. Could this be the same Liam Byrne who himself was out protesting just last week, speaking to GMB Union members protesting British Gas?

“I’ve organised a few demos myself in my time, but in the middle of a pandemic? Really? I do think we have all got a responsibility to row in behind the police… we need everybody from the Prime Minister down to be reinforcing both the spirit and the letter of the rules.”

Presumably hypocritical Byrne will be now taking himself off to the West Midlands Police headquarters to hand himself in.

At the weekend Labour’s West Midlands candidates for mayor and police and crime commissioner were busy campaigning. Despite repeated pleas from the candidates for the general public to follow the rules – especially as Birmingham is under stricter measures than much of the country – the rules clearly did not seem to apply to their own campaign. Deputy leader of Birmingham Council Brigid Jones and PCC candidate Simon Foster both merrily advertised themselves breaching the rule of six and social distancing rules. Or has Labour U-turned again on the rule of six after all?

Liam Byrne has defeated former Respect Party Leader Salma Yaqoob and former Dudley Council leader Pete Lowe to become Labour’s candidate for the West Midlands Mayoralty. Despite endorsements from Unite and Momentum, Yaqoob came third. See more about the candidates here…

Congratulations to @liambyrnemp, Labour’s Candidate for Mayor of the West Midlands! pic.twitter.com/JycdLRsUdi

— West Midlands Labour (@WMLabour) February 6, 2020

UPDATE: The votes were as follows: Byrne came first in first preferences (3,105 out of 6,948 valid votes), Lowe was second (with 2,034) and Yaqoob third (1,809). After second preferences were redistributed, Byrne received 56.5% of the vote and Lowe received 43.5%.