PM defends Tory party

Theresa May has defended the Conservative Party’s response to revelations it failed to properly report its election expenses – and stressed it will pay its record £70,000 fine.

The Tories were slapped with the penalty after the Electoral Commission found the party failed to declare or misreported more than £200,000 of election expenses.

Raising the issue at PMQs, SNP MP Pete Wishart said: “What did the Prime Minister, the Cabinet, her aides, know about any of this activity? Who was responsible for designing and signing off all of this?

“Do you agree with me that this is at best woeful negligence, and at worst pure electoral fraud?”

The Prime Minister said: “The party accepted in April 2016 it had made an administrative error on its national spending, it brought that to the attention of the Electoral Commission in order to amend its national return.

“As I say, national electoral spending is a question for the national party, not for individual members. The Electoral Commission has looked into these issues, as it has for issues for the Liberal Democrat Party and the Labour Party. It has issued fines to all three parties and those fines will be paid.”