MPs Expenses affair - deep skullduggery afoot

[Peter Presland]

This from 'The Guardian'

Poor dears - my heart bleeds for them

Email sent by No 10 gives Labour MPs switchboard number to ring for support, advice or legal help
Gordon Brown has set up a team in Downing Street to counsel and support distressed Labour MPs facing flak from constituents over their expenses claims, the Guardian has learnt.
An internal email sent out by the Labour party to all MPs reveals that a "wellbeing" support line has been launched from No 10. MPs are being told they can ring the Downing Street switchboard to be put through for support and advice.
The team is being headed by Anne Snelgrove, Brown's newly appointed parliamentary private secretary, who used to work for Ed Balls and is an avid user of Twitter, recently using the micro-blogging site to publish a link announcing her appointment.
The internal email sent today reads: "'Well-being' support and advice available from colleagues: Anne Snelgrove will act as a first port of call for colleagues on these matters. Anne will have a team of colleagues working with her on this. Anne can be contacted via the Number 10 switchboard."
The email, sent at 8.51 am, nearly three hours after the expenses claims became public, reveals that lawyers are standing by to help in the worst cases. "The Labour party is able to put colleagues in contact with a legal adviser, should you require one," it says.
The team is offering MPs help to keep the full details of expenses secure on their computers. It says: "The Labour party's network analyst, Chris Walker, is able to offer helpful advice on issues relating to secure publication of materials online." The email offers a direct line to contact him.
The email has been sent out by Martin O'Donovan, director of the parliamentary Labour party's resource centre and secretary to the PLP. He offers a mobile number for people to contact him should they need help outside office hours.
It also discloses that MPs can get advice on how to handle the media from all Labour's regional directors, press officers or straight from the Labour party press office – whose direct line number is also contained in the email.

Here is the website containing all the expenses information - suitably redacted with black marker pen to hide the more embarrassing detail naturally - For the reference archive.