Shamed former Tory MP David Ruffley, who was forced to quit parliament in disgrace at the election, has failed to pay back wrongly claimed expenses almost a year and a half after he stopped being an MP. IPSA say Ruffley double claimed a £144 house removals bill – they have tried again and again to get Ruffley to reimburse the taxpayer but have now given up. Guido sees Ruffley walking through Westminster every now and then, he still lives in SW1 and it’s a five minute walk from his flat to the Commons to hand in a cheque. Ruffers has an ex-members’ pass allowing him access to the corridors of power, the authorities should suspend it until he pays up.

SNP MP Corri Wilson is facing a standards probe over allegations that £88,000 of taxpayers’ money was paid into her company and then spent on her election campaign. The allegation, made by Tory MSP John Lamont in today’s Scottish Daily Mail, is that former SNP MSP Chic Brodie used his expenses account to fund Caledonii Resources, a company 90% owned by Wilson. The firm then played a key role in providing resources for Wilson’s election campaign. Readers will remember Wilson is the Nat who got her son AND daughter on the public payroll. What is it with SNP MPs and expenses troughing?

Usually the attention-grabbing Keith Vaz is cheered by constituents when he takes to the stage at the annual Diwali light switch-on in Leicester. This year he skulked at the back and was booed by the home crowd. Vaz is clinging to his position on the Justice select committee despite potentially breaking a law he helped draft. He retains the Labour whip and still sits on the party’s NEC despite consorting with prostitutes and trying his hand at procuring drug deals. Corbyn has defended Vaz – who is the subject of a police investigation – claiming it is a “private matter”. 

Compare this to the treatment of Simon Danczuk, a single man who sexted a woman but didn’t meet her let alone break any laws, and was immediately suspended by Labour. At the time Corbyn told the press: “He was suspended this morning because of recent revelations. His conduct will now be investigated”. This is a glaring double standard – the only real reason action has been taken against Danczuk but not Vaz is their differing attitudes to the leader.

As Tory MP Edward Garnier told the Leicester Mercury today: 

“This is the justice select committee – it is not the drawing pins committee or the paperclips committee. It is not appropriate for an MP under investigation by the police to be on the committee.”

Meanwhile Arron Banks says he is considering running candidates against corrupt MPs, taking inspiration from Trump’s call to “drain the swamp”. Starting in Leicester East…

Former Congressman Aaron Schock has been indicted for using public money to make his office look like Downton Abbey. The criminal charges against him include theft of government funds, fraud, making false statements and filing false tax returns. He has been accused of embezzlement to the tune of $100,000 including charging a $5,000 chandelier to the taxpayer. Couldn’t happen in Britain, could it?

Guido has been following the shenanigans of Keith Vaz for over a decade. It is Guido’s considered opinion that he is not a fit and proper person to be on the Justice Select Committee – for which he is standing. This has nothing to do with his sexuality. He is just plain dishonest.

Many will say that the dishonesty in his private life is a matter for him and his wife. Putting the prostitutes and the question of attempting to procure illegal drugs aside, if we must, there is the fact that as slippery as Vaz is, he has still managed to get caught for the following;

• He was suspended from parliament for making false allegations against the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner.
• It was found that he had given false information to the Standards and Privileges Committee and Elizabeth Filkin about his financial relationship to the Hinduja brothers.
• Failing to register his paid employment at the Leicester Law Centre when he first entered parliament in 1987.
• Failing to register a donation from the Caparo group in 1993.
• Failing to register complimentary hospitality and hotel rooms supplied by Indian tycoon Joginder Sanger which he used for encounters with young men in 2013 and 2014.
• He denied receiving cash from from a solicitor, Sarosh Zaiwalla. He was later found to have received £4,500 and censured as a result.
• He has previously been found in Contempt of the House.
• He lobbied against the extradition of the Anglo-Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi to France when he was in the pay of one of his companies.
• He was described by then MP Patrick Mercer, as “a crook of the first order”, when recruiting him to his TV sting exposé inspired APPG. Mercer had chosen to recruit him because he said he had “never met an operator like him… I mean it’s not always completely ethical, but it’s stunning, he is an operator”.
• Despite living just 45 minutes from Westminster Vaz claimed expenses for a Westminster flat.
• Prostitutes were paid off by an employee of Vaz’s charity.
• For some reason Leicestershire police, despite considering a range of possible offences including; wasteful employment of the police, attempting to pervert the course of justice and road traffic offences, have failed to prosecute him. Ordinary police officers felt he was untouchable by virtue of his position of influence on the Home Affairs Committee. Putting him on the Justice Committee risks repeating that error of judgement. 

The Justice Select Committee will soon be considering the government’s proposals for “Unexplained Wealth Orders”, new asset confiscation powers and powers to designate persons of “significant money laundering concern”. Vaz has over the last 16 years declared little in outside earnings yet somehow has amassed a £4 million property portfolio. In 2012 Scotland Yard was reportedly investigating hundreds of thousands held in various accounts controlled by Vaz. An understated Scotland Yard report recorded “There are numerous unexplained payments into the accounts and large transfers between accounts that require further investigation” and that “the level of funds received … are of a suspicious nature”. Quite.

How can Vaz sit on a committee that is going to consider legislation that will surely apply to him? Andrew Bridgen intends to object to the appointment of Keith Vaz to the Justice Select Committee – the first such objection this century. Unless Vaz’s allies talk it out this will result in a division tonight and a vote on the propriety of Vaz sitting on a powerful legislative body. It will only bring shame to parliament if this crook is elected to the the Justice Committee…

Employees that work for the same firm as George Galloway’s solicitors have been in court accused of falsely claiming almost £600,000 in interpreter’s legal fees. Bradford-based Chambers Solicitors are notorious for demanding up to £5,000 for allegedly libellous tweets against Galloway, now three of the solicitors who work for the firm are in hot water themselves. The Legal Aid Agency anti-fraud squad caught up with Mohammed Ayub, Mohammed Riaz and Neil Frew after they set up Legal Support Services, allegedly a fake company which paid thousands of pounds to an amusement arcade firm and paid private school fees. Guido notes that Chambers Solicitors Bradford hasn’t been accused of any wrongdoing, just those that work for it. The trial is ongoing. First they come for his channel…