Following The Slog’s identification of Labour Whip Tommy McAvoy as the man who told expenses-fiddler Jim Devine to work the system, the Labour hierarchy has told the Scottish MP he is not wanted on the General Election voyage

The Slog’s exclusive revelation that Tommy McAvoy was the Whip who ‘educated’ Livingston MP Jim Devine about MPs’ expenses got a fat zero on denials when first run on February 7th. Today we know why: the story was true, and Our Tom has been hastily shuffled off stage left.

“I have now reached the age of 66 and like anyone it is only natural to consider my future” he told Channel Four. His decision was suddenly reached, and helped along by increasingly impolite requests to vacate his seat before May….or March….or April, depending on who makes up Gordon’s overcrowded mind for him about the election date least likely to produce a rout.

Devine himself,meanwhile, has gone off the radar and out of the solar system. His website has been closed and his mobile switched off for over a fortnight. Best thing for it, Jim: keep your head down old son, stay sub judice….that’s the ticket.