Police drop inquiry into Swinson spend

Police have dropped their inquiry into Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson’s election expenses after being “unable to establish criminality”.

The East Dunbartonshire MP, who was a minister in the previous coalition government, was reported to Police Scotland last year by what was thought to have been one of her constituents.

Officers started looking into the circumstances in November after receiving the complaint, which centred around spending in last year’s general election.

In an update, a force spokeswomansaid:“police Scotland has been unable to establish criminality and is concluding inquiries.” The party said Ms Swinson had been a target of “SNP smears”.

The inquiry came after Ms Swinson took back the seat she had lost to the SNP in the snap election in June 2017. The East Dunbartonshire constituency was one of the Lib Dems’ top targets in Scotland after Ms Swinson represented the area between 2005 and 2015.