Fresh from accusing Tom Baldwin of commissioning a private investigator to blag details of a bank account, Lord Ashcroft has stepped up his attack on Ed Miliband's spin chief.
Writing on ConservativeHome, the former Tory party Treasurer says he is not surprised by accusation of infringement into Gordon Brown's private life... And brings the topic back to Baldwin.
Having now learnt of the tactics that were used to try to obtain details of Mr Brown's financial affairs, I can say that I was targeted in a near-identical way. Last Friday, I used my blog to highlight how a team from The Times, including Tom Baldwin, now Ed Miliband's Director of Communications, targeted me back in 1999.
Baldwin has not spoken on the record about the accusations but Miliband and Labour have denied them publicly. Will Aschroft's claim he used "weasel words" to keep his job with Labour, his invitation to sue ("why has he not moved to protect his 'reputation' if my series of allegations are so wide of the mark?"), and his threat to get the police involved tease out a public statement? Ashcroft claims he has the proof - but will he put those words into action?
Final word goes to Lord A:
For the moment, I am not publishing documents in my possession - obtained perfectly legitimately, by the way - because I do not wish to jeopardise what I now hope will be a renewed attempt by the police to bring Mr Baldwin in front of a criminal court.