Missed motorway call led to false accusation

It seems Number 10 may have held a grudge against Paul Farrelly – the MP falsely outed as a plotter against Gordon Brown – from last year.

Farrelly told Lobbydog that before last week the only time the PM had called him was just before the vote on 42 days.

Actually that’s not quite right – the PM doesn’t call anyone. A lackey calls and tells you the PM is on the line and requires a conversation.

Anyway, at that point Brown asked for Farrelly’s support and the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme told him where to go – explaining the 42 days measure was not only wrong but a political mistake.

The next time Number 10 tried to contact him was a couple of days ago, but he couldn’t take the call as he was driving up the motorway.

He phoned back later and left a message and then, while campaigning for the elections missed another call.

Shortly after that his name was fed to the Guardian as one of the conspirators behind the cyber-plot.

Sounds like Chief Whip Nick Brown thought he was in guilty hiding, when actually the MP – who said he’d never even seen any rebel e-mail – was trying to convince people to support the party in Staffs.

The irony, of course, was that Farrelly was so angry at the false accusation, that he let go of restraint and actually did call for the PM to step down.