Siobhan Benita, who the LibDems picked to be their candidate for London Mayor before she dropped out last month, has tweeted (from the South West of England) that she would support Scottish and London’s separation from the UK. Maybe the party dodged a bullet with that election delay…

LibDem London Mayoral candidate Siobhan Benita has become the second candidate to throw in the towel, following Rory Stewart bowing out in May. In a video posted on social media this morning, Siobhan explains “unfortunately with the delay due to the pandemic, I’m simply not able to commit to another full year of campaigning”. It was announced in March that the election would be postponed until May 2021…

Benita previously stood as an independent in 2012, placing fifth with 3.8% of the votes. The Liberal Democrats will be selecting a new candidate in due course. They have a number of London-based former candidates who are rumoured to be happy to take on more work and keen to return to the spotlight…

In her independent campaign, Benita stood as “the only candidate that is supporting a third runway at Heathrow“. As a Liberal Democrat, she u-turned on her stance in order to oppose airport expansion. Now she’s u-turned on standing at all…

Responding to a request from the Evening Standard’s Ross Lydall, Rory Stewart has followed Sadiq Khan in publishing his tax return. It reveals he earns £21,659 from rental income, and suspiciously for someone so posh he had no investment income. Sadiq meanwhile did not supplement his £150,000 mayoral income…

Lib Dem Siobhan Benita and Tory Shaun Bailey are yet to publish their returns, though they apparently will in due course. Guido looks forward to seeing them…