Battle brewing over train deal...

Labour’s business and transport teams are going on the full offensive over the Government’s decision to award the £1.4bn Thameslink train-building contract to German firm Siemens over British based Bombardier.

John Denham and Maria Eagle will tomorrow visit Bombardier’s Derby factory which would have made the trains had the contract been won.

I revealed the decision a fortnight ago and ever since Labour MPs from the area have been attacking the Government for letting the chance to boost UK manufacturing slip through its fingers.

Missing the opportunity to give the contract to Bombardier puts 3,000 jobs at risk in Derby and thousands more in the supply chain and, the MPs say, that all runs counter to the Coalition’s stated aim of promoting a private sector recovery.

There are a couple of things to remember however. One is that a few years back a Labour government also failed to give Bombardier the larger Intercity Express Programme (IEP) contract, worth £7.5bn at the time though it was later downgraded, which perpetuated the financial troubles the UK based manufacturer has experienced.

On that occasion Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon said his hands were tied by EU regulation which meant he could not favour UK based industry – the same reason that current Transport Secretary Philip Hammond gave when he confirmed that Siemens would win the Thameslink deal on June 16.

The question is how binding can these EU rules really be when both the French and German governments somehow manage to award almost all their train building contracts to home-based producers.

Labour MPs have suggested that the Government can, at the point of making a final decision, interpret the EU rules as they wish and therefore award the contract to who they wish.

Derby MP Margaret Beckett admitted to me that Labour made the wrong call on the IEP deal and should have given the work to Bombardier adding that the incident should also have diverted the new Government from 'making the same mistake again' with Thameslink.

But senior Government figures tell me the way to rig the tender a lá France is to fix the conditions to favour home-based manufacturers right at the very start of the process.

That of course would mean Bombardier’s loss of both IEP and Thameslink, the tender for which was set by Ruth Kelly back in 2007, were problems created by Labour.

With the Tories now ensconced in the DfT with access to the documents that tell the full story, or at least the part of it they want to tell, Labour may be walking a dangerous path by trying to pin the Thameslink decision on the current Government, then again they really have very little choice but to try.

Golden Goodbyes

After months of gruelling email exchanges with the Commons Authorities, and having to get the information commissioner involved, the data I requested on MPs' resettlement grants was finally released to me last Friday.

I’d originally put in a request to find out which MPs had taken grants because I wanted to know whether Patricia Hewitt had.

Hewitt had held several high paid jobs in the private sector even while she was an MP, and she had no need of a £50,000 grant to help her "readjust" when she left Parliament.

The Commons typically refused for weeks but eventually backed down when I referred the case to the commissioner – hence the Leicester Mercury, Hewitt’s local paper, got the exclusive story.

As well as Hewitt, this was the first time we could confirm that the likes of Geoff Hoon and even the disgraced MP Derek Conway had taken their grants.

The Independent’s High Street Ken reported the story today and gave the Mercury a mention, and then the BBC’s Emma Griffiths put this piece on their website.

The Telegraph's story.

The Mirror's follow up.

The information is now fully available at the House of Commons website here.

Hoon didn't order it...

Lobbydog gave his old chum Geoff Hoon a call this morning to see what he had to say about the £272,000 spent on artwork for the MoD during his tenure as Defence Secretary.

It was part of a larger refurbishment of the MoD’s Whitehall HQ in 2004, but also came as the country was fighting wars in which troops were chronically under-funded and under-equipped.

The cash was blown on eight pieces of modern art – since nicknamed ‘modern fart’ by MoD staff according to The Sun who reported the story today.

Hoon told Lobbydog: “I doubt that I ordered it. I certainly was not aware that I ordered it.”

I imagine these words have come in handy for Hoon in the various inquiries he’s had to give evidence at.

Next stop the Dr David Kelly inquest.

Another grilling for Hoon?

It’s looking like Geoff Hoon could be called to give evidence at yet another public hearing relating to the Iraq War.

The gaffe-prone former Defence Secretary has already had to give evidence at the Iraq War Inquiry, at which he claimed Gordon Brown had starved the Ministry of Defence of funds.

Then there was the Baha Mousa Inquiry, where he washed his hands of the death of an Iraqi detainee, and unceremoniously pointed the finger at his junior minister at the time.

With renewed calls for a full public inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, who died while Hoon was Defence Secretary, we may get one last chance to go and watch the former Ashfield MP get grilled.

Ironically the key lies with Hoon’s former parliamentary colleague from Nottinghamshire Ken Clarke.

The Justice Secretary is now responsible for deciding whether the records of Dr Kelly’s post mortem – which Lord Hutton ordered be kept secret for 70 years – are released.

Clarke’s office told me this morning that the decision was under consideration, but no doubt the Tory cabinet minister will be happy to let the former Labour MP sweat for a few weeks more.

A Ruddy good coup

I just need to mention in passing the stunning downfall of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Not so long ago Rudd was the most popular Aussie Prime Minister ever, then he was the least popular, then his party dumped him.

But the pragmatic efficient way in which they levered him out for the good of the party stands in astonishing contrast to the ludicrous Hoon and Hewitt plot over here.

As one UK Labour man Peter Kenyon tweeted this morning: “British Labour Party needs to learn from how Australian sister party changed leader while in government.”

Hoon up to his old tricks...

I had planned to go to the Baha Mousa Inquiry today to see former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon give evidence.

The inquiry panel is looking into the death of hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, who died in Basra in 2003 having been hooded and allegedly beaten to death by British soldiers.

Last week we heard how Hoon’s Armed Forces Minister at the time, Adam Ingram, had admitted to the inquiry that he had misled MPs when he told them hooding was only used for the transport of prisoners, despite having been informed it had also been used in other circumstances.

Today Hoon, who avoided the waiting press by entering the inquiry building via a back door, showed he has not lost his knack for ‘qualified’ speech (notwithstanding the lobbygate affair).

While saying he was "deeply shocked" when he discovered that an Iraqi detainee had died, he added that it was Ingram who had been responsible for day-to-day issues relating to the treatment of detainees.

Reminds me of that “I think it was Sue” moment from Bigot-gate.

I’ll put up a fuller version of the transcript when I get it.

Straw operates...

Lobbydog quizzed Labour stalwart Jack Straw last night on how close he was to Geoff Hoon’s plotting against Gordon Brown.

I wanted to know how he looked and sounded when the allegations made in Andrew Rawnsley’s book – that in 2008 he and Hoon had sought to topple Brown, but later changed their minds – were put to him in front of a room of people.

As you may remember the book, The End of the Party said Straw had met with Stephen Byers and Charles Clarke to discuss the issue.

Straw had allegedly indicated to Byers that he and the chief whip, Geoff Hoon, would "take action before the party conference" in the autumn of 2008.

The plan apparently fell apart when Hoon was bought off with the offer of an EU Commissioner’s job that never came through.

When I first asked Straw about the allegations he replied that Hoon had in no way contacted him about the most recent botched coup with Patricia Hewitt.

I pointed out that this was not what I had asked about and that in the book…

“I like my bedtime reading to be something that is not absolutely to do with work,” he joked.

Eventually getting to the crux he said: “In the period between the Crewe by-election and the Glasgow East by-election there were a lot of conversations amongst people.

“Those were to do with the fact that one was caught in a very difficult situation not to do with plotting a coup. I was never involved in one, and I haven’t been.”

Make of that what you will.

Straw faced a whole bunch of tough questions during the briefing but managed to answer them all without losing his demeanour, without losing his sense of humour and without putting any hacks' backs up.

It’s no wonder he’s been around for such a long time – he’s one of the few Labour politicians to have survived a stint at the Home Office.

Wonder where he’ll be May 7th?

The De Piero Interview

Click to read the full text, here is a taste…

The interview takes place as news breaks that Geoff Hoon had been caught on camera saying he wants to turn political contacts into something that makes money.

In some ways the current Ashfield MP's legacy is the trickiest question for her; she needs to differentiate herself from her disgraced predecessor, while at the same time not drawing attention to him.

Hoon's name is like a fingernail down a blackboard to Labour ears these days. So does she think he was a good MP? The sidestep this time is not so neat.

"I can't comment on Geoff Hoon. I don't know in particular whether he was a good MP because I wasn't living in Ashfield at the time," she says.

"He had a successful Cabinet career and I respect him for that. But this seat needs someone who will be here, it needs someone who will listen to people here."

Hoon - tamed and half dead

I have to say, dear readers, that I’m starting to find Geoff Hoon kind of pitiful.

It’s not that I’m now supporting him or anything.

But in the same way one feels at the end of a Godzilla movie, when the rampaging lizard has finally been tamed and is now lying bloody and half-dead with a small monster’s tear gathering in its eye – he’s just so weak.

His fall from grace has been a spectacular political implosion. Nine months ago he was a secretary of state. Since then he’s been sacked, passed over, blamed for a botched coup, suspended and investigated.

When he was caught on camera in the ‘lobbygate’ film it was obvious that the post-MP job offers have not exactly been rolling in, like they have for Pat Hewitt (see post below).

In fact it was pretty clear that Hoon hasn’t got a clue what he’s doing when it comes to this kind of thing.

Now he’s been sacked from his UN job – the only thing he had left practically.

All that can happen now is for the bank to repossess his home/homes and the destruction will be complete.

Hoon sits on LD's sofa...

LD spoke to Geoff Hoon earlier. He went into a bit of detail about how he’d been duped by an undercover reporter behind the lobbying scandal.

“I received a perfectly straight forward e-mail from what appeared to be a straight forward US company asking whether I’d like to have what they described as an informal chat.

“They had a website that checked out and they had an address and telephone numbers in London that, when called, were answered by professional people.”

When asked about the comment he made to the undercover reporter about wanting to turn his contacts and knowledge into something that “frankly” made money, he said:

“Perhaps I shouldn’t have put it that way. But please bear in mind that we were having private conversations and she was pushing me hard about what I might do for the private sector.”

There was more, but to read it all you’ll have to wait till the full story is published in the Evening Post tomorrow morning. I’ll tweet link.

Ends and beginnings for Ashfield

Gloria De Piero was selected as the Labour candidate for Ashfield last night – just in time to divert a little attention from her predecessor Geoff Hoon.

While she was busy trying to make some new political contacts, Hoon has been focusing on trying to turn his old ones into a profit.

“One of the challenges that I’m really looking forward to is translating my knowledge and contacts about the international scene into something that, frankly, makes money,” said Hoon.

He later denied any wrongdoing. No doubt he’d been “acting within the rules”. But let him fade away. Ashfield has a new story.

The Lib Dem candidate in the constituency, Jason Zadrozny, is already basing his campaign on the fact that he’s a local – his goal will be to portray Labour’s De Piero as an outsider and a party stooge.

It will be an interesting fight, but odds are that the former GMTV presenter will be the next MP for Ashfield. She is defending a 10,000 vote majority.

I’ve a feeling the tougher challenge for De Piero will have been getting the support of Labour members to win the candidacy, rather than the support of Labour voters to win the seat.

Beware the ides of March...

Now feels like a good time to remind Labour party chiefs and contenders in the approaching contest in Ashfield for the party's candidacy of a little Nottinghamshire history.

Ashfield Labour members have been kicking up a fuss over what they claim are attempts to shoe-horn a candidate – TV presenter Gloria De Piero – into their constituency.

Party members claim, for example, that De Piero has been put on a shortlist of nobodies in order to ease her passage into the seat’s candidacy.

Threats have been made that the local party won’t put up with it, though they don’t seem to have been particularly heeded.

But Ashfield has form when it comes to rebelling against Labour candidates.

In 1977 there was a by-election in the seat – which at that time supported a Labour majority of almost 23,000.

Yet the Labour candidate lost the seat by 264 votes on polling day. Some Labour bods I spoke to claimed it was because the party misjudged how safe the seat was and diverted campaign funds elsewhere.

But a key factor, I’m told by locals, was actually that many Labour voters deserted the party because they “hated” their own candidate – who was a particularly divisive Notts politician called Michael Cowan.

Cowan later defected to the Tory party.

After years of ‘taking one for the team’ by putting up with Geoff Hoon, it’s understandable that they’d want a proper say in choosing the next politician who would speak on their behalf.

Could we be in for another 1977?

Another Labour retirement?

Rumours are swirling around that another Labour MP in Nottingham will announce he is standing down at the election.

Nottingham East MP John Heppell – a Labour whip – is said to be strongly considering the move.

Heppell has been around in the Commons since 1992 when he won his seat from the Conservative incumbent.

If the rumours turn out to be true he will join a string of Labour MPs from Nottinghamshire that say they’ve had enough.

Nottingham South’s Alan Simpson, Sherwood’s Paddy Tipping and Ashfield’s Geoff Hoon are all calling it a day. Meanwhile Mansfield’s Alan Meale is also said to be considering retirement.

If Meale and Heppell do stand down then that’s five out of eight Labour MPs in the city and county who will be retiring.

Ashfield Labour shortlist announced

The shortlist of three women hoping to become Labour’s candidate to fight Geoff Hoon’s Ashfield seat at the election has been announced.

We already know about Gloria De Piero, the former GMTV presenter who some local Labour members feared was being levered into the seat by the national party.

The shortlist also includes Pam Tatlow, who has stood for Labour before, though not since 1992 when she came third in Cheltenham I believe. She’s now the chief exec of a university related think tank.

Faye Abbott is the third candidate. She’s a party member from Coventry who is yet to fight an election, though she has been a council candidate in her home city.

Given her lack of experience it’s unlikely Abbott would win the candidacy. Tatlow has been around longer, but you can’t help but think this is a list in which De Piero stands out.

She is inexperienced as a politician too. But the biggest criticism against her, that she is not local, is cancelled out because neither are the other two.

The question is whether Ashfield Labour members who feel they have been stitched up, will be angry enough to punish the party at the ballot box and vote Lib Dem.

The UK’s third party is seen as the greatest threat to Labour in Ashfield and is fielding a vocal, born and bred local man who sits on the council.

Runners and riders in north Notts

The race to win Labour’s candidacy for Geoff Hoon’s Ashfield seat is now officially on.

The position has been advertised and the contenders have to submit their CVs by March 5, with an all women shortlist (AWS) to be announced on March 8.

We already know that former GMTV presenter Gloria De Piero (below) is in the running – she has now moved to the area in a bid to combat inevitable accusations that she’s an outsider.

Expect Fiona Twycross – a former regional director of Labour in Yorkshire – to have a go as well.

She recently lost out in the contest to be PPC for Erewash – a seat vacated by Liz Blackman MP in which a new candidate was chosen through an all women shortlist too.

Along with the obligatory union people, Christine Shawcroft, a member of Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, has also been linked to the seat.

With the local party feeling miffed about Hoon and the imposition of the AWS, it should be an interesting one to watch.

Good morning Ashfield...

We pondered here whether the Labour party was parachuting someone into Geoff Hoon’s Ashfield seat – the Mail on Sunday yesterday claimed they are.

The would-be Labour MP that party chiefs want to take up the party’s candidacy is Gloria De Piero, GMTV political editor.

Lobbydog can confirm she is definitely in the running with the national party’s backing. But she is apparently keeping quiet, as all candidates are required to do under Labour rules until a certain point in the selection process.

It’s going to be a tough sell for the journo. I doubt there is a constituency Labour party anywhere in the UK more fed up of being sidelined by their MP’s ambitions, than the one in Ashfield.

The feeling was that Hoon delayed announcing his resignation not because he wanted to fight on for the electorate, not even because he wanted to rid the country of Gordon Brown, but because he hadn’t found another job yet.

If there is any feeling that De Piero wants to be the MP because she wants into Parliament, rather than because she wants into Ashfield, then she and her national Labour backers may well find Ashfield a cold, unwelcoming place.

Sky-diving in Ashfield

Is the Labour party about to parachute a woman into Geoff Hoon’s old seat?

A Lobbydoggy has helpfully informed us in a comment to an earlier post that an ‘all women shortlist’ (AWS) was not what the local Ashfield party wanted.

But it appears the national party has imposed its will, as it did in Sherwood.

If there is anyone out there who wants to dispute that, feel free to do so here.

Word is, however, that there aren’t too many local women in contention.

Expect there to be some well known regional Labour figures, people who are favourites with party chiefs, in the running for what is a pretty safe seat with a 10,000 vote majority.

Labour says Hoon's seat needs female touch

The Labour candidate who will fight Geoff Hoon’s Ashfield seat at the election will be chosen from an all women shortlist.

The special selection panel of Labour’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), met last night and made the decision.

There is a Labour majority of 10,000 there so whoever gets the candidacy is likely to be the next MP.

I don’t know whether an all women shortlist (AWS) is what the local party wanted – perhaps one of my Notts readers can inform us?

What I do know is that there are a group of men in Notts who are getting well miffed with the NEC excluding them from the selection process in seats that become available.

There was a right hoo-ha when nearby Sherwood, vacated by Paddy Tipping, went AWS.

None-the-less I’ve heard that the chosen candidate there, Emilie Oldknow, regional director of East Midlands Labour, has been working on all cylinders.

If the candidate (pictured) can capture the voters’ imagination it should be a more interesting battle, as Labour has a smaller 6,500 majority.

Hoon and Hewitt slammed

Geoff Hoon and Pat Hewitt took a verbal bashing from a member of Labour’s governing body today.

Lobbydog was chatting to the National Executive Committee’s Peter Kenyon who said it would be outrageous if the pair took up their so-called “resettlement grants”.

Hoon stands to walk away with £64,000 and Hewitt, £54,000, under the grant system, which was set up to help MPs “adjust to non-parliamentary life”.

Kenyon said: “I think there is a case for any member of any party that doesn’t have a genuine need, to voluntarily forgo the grant. That seems to be the incontrovertible case.

“For an MP that is stepping down at the next election that already has employment or the means of surviving promptly it would be outrageous for them to claim it, particularly in the light of how the public now sees MPs.

“If it requires intervention to that end from the Parliamentary Standards Authority, then I would whole heartedly support that.”

It’s all the more scandalous of course because neither Hoon, a trained lawyer with a property portfolio, nor Hewitt, who holds board level positions with Boots, BT, Cinven and Barclays Capital, is in a tight spot financially now that they’re leaving the House.

If they had waited till after the election before standing down they would have lost the grant all together as the system under which they are entitled to it will most likely be scrapped.

LD spoke to the pair yesterday, both said they had “not given much thought” as to whether they would take the grant or not.

Hoon finally goes...

So Geoff Hoon finally fell on his sword yesterday, but only because he tripped while legging it from other sword-wielding Labour party members.

The Ashfield MP’s official position was that he would stay on at the next election no matter what.

There had been rumours of him standing down, but ones I heard had been dependent on him finding a better job offer outside Parliament.

If that is the case his position would’ve been more: “I definitely won’t stand down, unless someone else decides to pay me a good wage, in which case I definitely will.”

So the question is what happened to bring the decision on now?

One answer is that he actually thought he would lose a vote of no confidence which his local party were planning to hold – he wanted to jump rather than be pushed.

But even if the party had passed the motion of no confidence – some think Hoon could have fought it off – the final decision on deselection would have rested with Labour’s governing body, the National Executive Council (NEC).

Word from the NEC is that it would not have been willing to push Hoon out this side of an election because it would have meant high-profile party division.

It could be, of course, that to save the party the embarrassment of the no confidence vote he simply decided to do “the right thing”.

But given the recent bungled leadership challenge, it would be fair to argue that saving his party embarrassment has not always been at the top of his agenda.

The other option is that he has indeed found another job – there has been speculation about Hoon being linked with a position at the Football League.

Whatever the answer, Labour has now lost one of its most divisive characters – and breathed a huge sigh of relief.