Ross Lydall: Home Sweet Home Secretary as Swinson fails to deliver

So, did Jo Swinson come up with the goods? Alas not. Rather than daring to quiz Jacqui Smith on her expenses (see previous post), Ms Swinson tried to open up a new flank on alleged wrongdoings in the House of Lords.

Last week, her Lib-Dem chum Chris Huhne (the party's Home Affairs spokesman) wrote to the Met police to ask it to investigate whether there were grounds to press bribery charges against four peers named in a second round of allegations in the Sunday Times "cash for amendments" row.

So, for that reason, Ms Swinson asked Ms Smith: "Will she tell the House what discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues and the police about whether the police currently have adequate powers to investigate Members of either House of Parliament who are suspected of the common law offence of bribery?"

A relieved Ms Smith quickly replied: "No, I have not had any discussions with police colleagues about that." End of story. Ms Swinson may not get such a good chance of doing some political point-scoring for quite some time.