As Guido predicted earlier Michael Crick will be conducting an investigation into Chris Huhne on tonight's Newsnight. Once the investigation has aired I'll post a report...
11.10pm
The centrepiece of Michael Crick's report was an interview with Edward Kellett-Bowman, a former Conservative MEP. EK-B alleges that Mr Huhne used European parliamentary funds (which he had access to as a MEP) to help finance literature that included promotion of his bid to become MP for Eastleigh (a seat he only won by 600 votes last May). EK-B says that the EP funds used by Mr Huhne should not have been spent on literature of a campaigning nature and he is asking the EP authorities to investigate. The multi-millionaire Mr Huhne denies any misuse of funds - by saying that the literature funded by the EP resources were not distributed during the actual General Election campaign - when it would have been improper to have done so. The European Parliament has not yet taken up EK-B's complaint.
Mr Crick's report also included allegations from Labour lawyers that an election leaflet put out by Eastleigh's LibDems during last year's election campaign was illegal. The leaflet appeared to be a newsletter from the Hampshire Labour party urging supporters to vote LibDem. The small print revealed it was a LibDem leaflet. A typically dirty local campaigning trick from the party that always preaches about clean politics at the national level.
Mr Crick certainly didn't deliver any knock out blow but it was a refreshing change to see him pursuing a non-Tory.
Guess I'd better watch it then. Might pick up something unsavoury to greet him with when he visits this part of the world tomorrow.
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | February 17, 2006 at 22:15
Well, without wishing to pre-empt our esteemed Editor, that was (as they say where I was brought up) "neither nowt nor summat".
Posted by: Richard Weatherill | February 17, 2006 at 23:00
It was good to see a senior Lib Dem confronted on camera with something like 'Hampshire Labour News' (actually a Lib Dem leaflet disguised as a Labour one). Huhne's pathetic and shify response proves he's got little moral integrity.
Posted by: Tory T | February 18, 2006 at 00:07
This won't come to anything. Crick is vastly overrated. He didn't land a blow on on Michael Howered during the last election and his biography of the former Tory leader has long since been remaindered. Do you know anybody who actually bought the book?
Posted by: john Skinner | February 18, 2006 at 00:11
Labour have no room to talk on the "misleading literature" front, in a number of marginals in the north-west they distributed seemingly independently-produced flyers about tactical voting, with tiny imprints at the bottom...
Posted by: Cllr Iain Lindley | February 18, 2006 at 01:10
The misuse of EU funds was by far the more serious charge, and from the programme it seemed that Huhme had little defence under the EU rules cited (his case depended on the UK definition of "campaigning" despire his activities falling under the equally barred "pre-campaigning" clauses).
The "passing off" charge was a joke, although Huhme's shifty response did him no favours. At the last election leaflets like the one Huhme would have circulated, would also have been put out by the Lib Dems in every one of their Lib/Con marginals (we certainly had similar leaflets here in Torridge).
Of course, we're not entirely innocent when it comes to "passing off" either...
Posted by: James Hellyer | February 18, 2006 at 10:46
The BBC-Campbell accord goes from strength to strength!
I suppose the fact that the chief Campbellite was one of Chris Huhne's Liberal Demoprat colleagues in the European Parliament is completely unrelated?
Can we expect a similar Crick hatchet job on Campbell for being dishonest about his long-term health condition, or is the BBC understandably reluctant to speak ill of the, er, ill?
Just watched the report - storm in a teacup if you ask me. The bit about Huhne stealing one of Tony Blair's girlfriends at Oxford was far more interesting!
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | February 18, 2006 at 14:28
I'll never forget the occasion at university when an MEP gave a talk and took 14 members of the committee out to dinner, he then asked us to write our names on a piece of paper so he could claim the whole cost of the meal back. Needless to say this was an easy three figure sum, yet he thought nothing of it...modesty forbids me from naming the guy!
Having read today’s (centre-right) papers the Huhne thing receives very little coverage.
Posted by: Frank Young | February 18, 2006 at 14:29
It was always going to be a non-issue.
Posted by: Edward | February 18, 2006 at 17:19
I understand from another source that Huhne ran a Simon Hughes-like "straight choice" leaflet in Eastleigh in 2005 too. Will he leave it years to apologise to Conor Burns in the same way it took Simon Hughes years to apologise to Peter Tatchell?
Posted by: Donal Blaney | February 18, 2006 at 18:57
MEP fiddles expenses? Lib Dem caught out in act of hypocrisy and two-faced campaign? Dear me.
On other threads:
SHOCK ! Crick exposes Pope Benedict as "leading Catholic"
GASP ! Journalist reveals just what bears get up to in the woods - Oaten refuses to comment
HORROR ! Dog bites man
etc.
Posted by: William Norton | February 18, 2006 at 20:22
Lib Dem campaigns are usually based on hypocrisy. While they trade on being nice, and use their national frontmen to claim they're running a positive campaign, in the all the constituencies they actually run nasty, vicious ad hominem campaigns.
If they can't find something nasty to say about the candidate, they just say something that implies there's something nasty in his background.
I'm still trying to find out why Geoffrey Cox earned the title "Michael Howard's controversial candidate"...
Posted by: James Hellyer | February 18, 2006 at 21:22
JH: I think you've answered your own question: they had worked out he was going to take the seat off them.
Posted by: William Norton | February 18, 2006 at 21:29
True. It was just a particularly feeble smear attempt on their part (and from their former Director of Communication too).
Posted by: James Hellyer | February 18, 2006 at 21:47
Well I have a fair idea as to where they were trying to come from but like you said it was pretty feeble - in fact their whole campaign was pretty feeble but that's another story :-)
Anyway, you may be interested to know James that the Walter-rat is now helping Ming Campbell to lose his election too http://www.campbellcampaign.org/2006/01/29/david-walter-from-the-hustings-floor/#comments
Posted by: Andrew | February 18, 2006 at 23:23
Well I have a fair idea as to where they were trying to come from...
Not the feeble "he made money from legal aid" line that they trotted out at the hustings, per chance?
Posted by: James Hellyer | February 18, 2006 at 23:37
Congratulations you win first prize! I would guess they were trying to portray Geoffrey as a wealthy barrister out of touch with the people, conveniently over-looking the fact that their own candidate had about as much in common with the people of Torridge and West Devon as a spin doctor parachuted in from London would have (which of course he was).
What was even more laughable was that they followed the 'controversial candidate' line with "local" campaigner David Walter...
Posted by: Andrew | February 19, 2006 at 00:04
"Anyway, you may be interested to know James that the Walter-rat is now helping Ming Campbell to lose his election too."
Is it him that stitched up first Simon Hughes and now Chris Huhne once they overtook Campbell?
Posted by: Daniel Vince-Archer | February 19, 2006 at 01:04
Of course, the other interesting thing about the "Michael Howard's controversial candidate" formation is its clear implication that Michael Howard was personally a huge negative in the eyes of the elctorate, and that a candidate could be tarred by association with him.
I strongly suspect that his replacement as leader with someone who seems normal in comparision, has a lot more to do with the party gaining a few points in the polls than any policy changes do.
Posted by: James Hellyer | February 19, 2006 at 10:34
I suspect your right James, though it has always been Lib Dem policy to label the rival candidate as "Michael Howard's" or "Tony Blair's" man. The only problem with that is when the leader is actually quite popular, though to be fair the Howard label didn't exactly hold us back in the constituency considering the final result. (But IIRC most of our campaign literature carefully skirted around the national campaign themes anyway!)
DVA - To be fair to Walter I don't think he would stoop that low regarding Hughes and Huhne, though he is a Lib Dem of course...
Posted by: Andrew | February 19, 2006 at 15:37