As Hélène Mulholland reported, Ian Clement entered no plea when he appeared Westminster magistrates court yesterday. News Shopper adds that he "indicated he would want the case heard at a crown court." It all suggests that Clement intends to fight at least some of the fraud charges alleging misuse of a GLA corporate credit card and hopes to do so before a jury, where - according to conventional wisdom - his chances of acquittal would be greater. Evidence would be examined and witnesses called. Might Mayor Johnson be among them? My salivary glands are shattering previous production records.
Clement's solictor repeated that his client was "surprised that a publicly funded prosecution is being brought for meal expenses totalling £227." This stopped short of his observation last week that "political expediency appears to be present," but it hints at the same thing.
It isn't clear if Clement thinks any such expediency starts with City Hall, the Met or both, but there seems no doubt that he is aggrieved and in fighting mood. Adam, staying up far too late last night, has spotted the following comment left by Clement at the blog of his former colleague James Cleverly AM:
James,I too knew and liked you and as one of your constituents I consider you do a good job.
I am sadden that instead of actually contacting me, something you have not done since I resigned on the 22nd of June, to at least hear my side of the story so a rounded and informed view of my situation could be considered you chose to vent forth on you blog indiscriminately.
Further as you do not know what I have been charged with and the details of those charges then how can you say that it is absolutely right that I have been charged and by inference assume my guilt.
I also assume by your comments that you do not support the Met Police amnesty for officers who have misused their corporate credit cards, no resignations there just training and will be lobbying the CPS to press charges as it is as you say absolutely right that no one is seen to be above the law no matter who they are.
In conclusion, I would also ask you to note that I resigned, I did not receive or seek any type of payoff, that I was never a professional politician as such, unlike many of those who inhabit the corridors of westminster but an ordinary person who made mistakes and paid a price for those mistakes.
That sounds to me like a man working hard on defending himself in public. Boris isn't rid of his former deputy just yet.
