Tories ‘may have broken law’ over battlebus spend
THE Conservative Party has been fined a record £70,000 for breaking election expenses rules. The party failed to declare more than £60,000 of spending on the party’s controversial Battlebus2015 tour, the Electoral Commission has found.
The commission said the party’s expenses return for the 2015 General Election included just £38,996 for the Battlebus tour, which took activists to target seats in the final weeks of the campaign.
However, in the course of the commission’s inquiry, the party identified a further £63,487 of spending which had not been declared – taking the total to £102,483.
The commission also found that a proportion of the spending should have been included in the returns of candidates in areas visited by the Battlebus rather than in the party’s national spending return.
The failure to do so “cast doubt” on the accuracy of those returns, the commission added.
The Electoral Commission’s investigation covered the national party rather than spending by individual candidates, which local police forces have been looking into.
So far 12 forces are known to have submitted files to the Crown Prosecution Service in relation to inquiries into individual candidates.
The Electoral Commission has referred a possible criminal offence – of whether Simon Day, the Conservative Party’s registered treasurer until April 2016, “knowingly or recklessly made a false declaration” – to the Metropolitan Police.
In response to the Electoral Commission report, a Conservative spokesman said it had “complied fully... and will pay the fines”.
He said: “Political parties of all colours have made reporting mistakes from time to time... this is the first time the Conservative Party has been fined for a reporting error.
“We regret that and will continue to keep our internal processes under review to ensure this does not happen again.
“Given the range of technical errors made by a number of political parties and campaign groups, there also needs to be a review of how the Electoral Commission’s processes and requirements could be clarified or improved.”
In the final two weeks of the campaign, there were three Battlebus tours – each lasting between six and ten days – covering the north of England, the Midlands and the south west.
In each case, around 50 activists took part, visiting around ten constituencies, with hotel accommodation provided.
The commission said it “cannot determine from the available evidence what proportion of spending on the Battlebus2015 campaign activity was properly party spending and what was candidate campaign expenditure.
“Nonetheless the commission is satisfied that a proportion of the reported spending was candidate campaign spending and should not have been included in the party’s return.
“That proportion was also, as a result of this, not included in any relevant candidate’s campaign expenses return, casting doubt on the accuracy of those returns.”
The commission warned that the inclusion of candidate expenses in the party’s national return could constitute an offence under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act and said that the party’s then treasurer Simon Day had offered “no excuse” for what happened.
“Rather, their inclusion appears a consequence of a lack of consideration given to Battlebus2015 and whether candidate campaigning might take place,” it said.
Senior Conservative MP Oliver Letwin said that spending record “mistakes” were probably down to “human error”.
“I don’t think you should conclude from this that there is some great conspiracy,” he told BBC Radio 4 Today’s programme.