Guido Fawkes Sun column ends, but editor Paul Staines says: 'The appetite for political scandal is back'

Guido Fawkes's political column will no longer feature in The Sun on Sunday.

The column, created by the team behind the Guido Fawkes website, has featured in the newspaper for three years. This was after a year of writing for the Daily Star Sunday.

Guido editor Paul Staines told Press Gazette he was "happy" after the split and said that the team will continue to work with The Sun on stories.

He added that while there has been some interest from other media organisations, he will not be looking for a new newspaper column. 

Instead, the website will focus on its own content as well as continuing to sell and work on stories for other media organisations. 

Staines said: "The only reason we went to the Star was because of Leveson – there was no market for political scandal stories because all the papers were nervous about upsetting politicians.

"So we fell into going to newspapers. So we went to the Star and then The Sun grabbed us as soon as we were out of contract.

"And I think the appetite for political scandal is back. And I think our model will work."

He said that putting together the column became a bit more of a "struggle" for the team in 2015, the election year. After the election, Guido deputy Harry Cole announced he was moving to The Sun.

The Guido Fawkes team currently comprises Staines, news editor Alex Wickham and two reporters, one who is due to start shortly. Guido's sketch witer, Simon Carr, is retiring and will also be replaced soon.

In an interview with Press Gazette last year, Staines revealed he was plotting international expansion into the English-speaking world outside of the United States.

He said this was put "on ice" last year but that this plan is still under consideration: "I will be looking to do something again probably at the end of this year/ next year."

Yesterday, Guido Fawkes revealed in a post that the site attracted 7m unique users last year and is on track for 10m in 2020.