Paul Staines: 'I pummel them until they beg for mercy'
Interview: Political blogger, aka Guido Fawkes, on his acid house past, Julian Assange, and Westminster 'lowlifes'
Man behind the mask … Staines describes his own politics as ‘anarcho-libertarian, or Thatcherite on drugs’. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
'You know that's the rumour, don't you?" confides Paul Staines, as he tells a tale about A Very Senior Politician which would send the proverbial bombshell through Westminster should it ever enter the public domain. It's just the kind of lethal gossip that has made Staines, as his blogging persona Guido Fawkes, one of the most feared and influential forces in British public life.
Since Guido's Order-Order blog went live in 2004, it has exposed MPs' petty expenses fraud, forced Peter Hain to resign from his cabinet post over undeclared campaign donations and, most spectacularly, brought down Damian McBride, Gordon Brown's political enforcer, in the Smeargate affair.
Staines describes his own politics as "anarcho-libertarian, or Thatcherite on drugs". So is he the Joker in Westminster's Gotham City, a gleefully malevolent presence causing havoc, or is there a deeper political motive? "I wanted to undermine politicians on their moral high horse," he says. "It was to highlight hypocrisy. Because they are a bunch of sleazy, underhand lowlifes. I don't think that's generalising."
Poll ratings
He is most proud of Smeargate, which revealed that McBride was sending scurrilous emails about Conservatives that might be used in a Labour-supporting gossip website. "Labour's poll ratings dropped five points," Staines recalls. "Some Tory people told me it was a game-changer." The day Brown stormed around No 10 complaining about a Guido post was also a highlight. "I'm quite pleased that Gordon's been driven even madder by my teasing him."Guido's determination to be first with the latest rumour, backed up by high-grade sources, has challenged the lobby system, which, he argues, relies too much on cosy collusion between journalists and contacts.
"Politicians don't have to talk to me," Staines says. "I pummel them until they start begging for mercy and then they become more helpful." But he's also a useful resource for newspapers, since he is freer to air unsubstantiated allegations which they can then report. Guido's instant response to Alan Johnson's resignation – a post alleging an affair with a civil servant – was reported by the Daily Telegraph. That was before an affair between Johnson's wife and his protection officer came to light.
The blog also caused a furore by revealing that William Hague had shared a room with a male assistant before last year's general election. Hague threatened legal action if false stories about him appeared and then made a personal statement, denying rumours about his sexuality and explaining why he and wife, Ffion, had been unable to have children. A ruthless intrusion? "I think it's odd that a millionaire, a middle-aged man shares a room with a male special adviser. I said no more than that. I think Hague panicked and gave that rather over-the-top answer."
His libertarian attitude to them hasn't changed since he became a spokesman for a company running illegal raves at the peak of the 80s acid house scene. "I went to a rave and took ecstasy and acid for the first time. I completely lost it but I had a great time," he recalls. When he was offered video footage of a former cabinet minister "getting stoned" at a music festival, he declined to use it, he says, because he hadn't voted to tighten the laws on soft drug use. "But if, for instance, David Cameron was snorting cocaine with Jeremy Clarkson and Rebekah Brooks at one of their Oxfordshire weekends, I think he would be in a lot of trouble," he jokes.
Why hasn't Guido pursued the political power nexus between News Corp and the Cameron clan with the same vigour he employs to uncover politicians' secrets? "The BBC is the pervasive influence on our society," he argues. "It is monolithic and uses all of its old-school-tie contacts. I don't think Rebekah comes from that background. At least with Murdoch you know where you stand." The Guardian targeted Andy Coulson over the phone-hacking affair "as a proxy because you all hate News International," he claims.
Staines is unlikely, however, to be invited to any Oxfordshire soirees. He guarded his anonymity until Guido was unmasked in 2007. He once worked for a shadowy rightwing foreign policy thinktank that advocated sending US arms to the Contras in Nicaragua. A period as a City trader ended when he declared himself bankrupt in 2003 following litigation over a bad debt. His business is based offshore in Nevis "as a litigation shield"; he has "never been successfully sued but many have tried".
In 2007, he helped WikiLeaks publish a confidential memo about Northern Rock under the threat of a court injunction. But he doesn't share Julian Assange's desire for the spotlight. "Julian is a difficult character to deal with," Staines says. "He's a bit prickly." Staines suggested that Assange redact the personal email address of a leading Jewish lawyer involved in the Northern Rock "superinjunction" to avoid antisemitic hate mail, and was disappointed when he published it anyway. He believes WikiLeaks is now too big a target and will be supplanted by a new wave of smaller, "mini-leaks" sites.
Relentlessly negative
Staines is already grooming his successor, Harry Cole, who blogged as Tory Bear and now writes most of the Order-Order stories. Is Guido preparing to retire? "Sometimes I think it's corrosive to my soul to be as relentlessly negative and cruel as I am."Although the blog attracts nearly 2m views a month, it is the Message Space umbrella of political sites which brings in the cash (the combined Order-Order and Message Space turnover is believed to be about £150,000 a year) and allows Staines to employ a full-time advertising sales team. The company has just agreed a deal to run the "No to AV" voting referendum web campaign, using social media to target key opinion-formers. "You've got to be across the political spectrum because commercial and public affairs advertisers want to reach a Labour, Tory and increasingly a Lib Dem web audience," he says.
Paradoxically, Staines, the free-market capitalist, has built an almost monopolistic position in the UK political web space. Rival political sites either give up or come to work for Guido, who sucks up all the hottest gossip. Stories with a particularly high value are farmed out to Sunday newspapers for a price, to help fund the business. Message Space dominates political advertising, operating digital campaigns for clients ranging from Tribune magazine to Tory Radio.
Perhaps it's Guido, the man politicians fear to cross, who should be referred to the Competition Commission? "It's very hard now for people to break through," he admits. "You do have an incredible first-mover advantage. But there are still new blogs bubbling under like Political Scrapbook, which has the right attitude. It's hard to create a leftwing version of me because of political correctness."
Unfortunately for the Westminster "lowlifes", Guido isn't done plotting yet. "There is a certain trembling fear I put into politicians when I speak to them at a drinks party. I'm probably a bad person for enjoying that. And the thing about Alan Johnson which everyone knows is that …"
Curriculum vitae
Age 43Education Salvatorian Roman Catholic College, Harrow; Humberside College of Higher Education
Career 1987 Foreign policy analyst, Committee for a Free Britain
1989 Spokesman, Sunrise Acid House rave collective
2003 Declares himself bankrupt
2004 Creates Order-Order blog
2006 Reports allegations of John Prescott affair
2009 Smeargate allegations force the resignation of Damian McBride
