Expenses on ‘Battlebus campaign’ approved by Tory bosses
TORY chairmen Lord Feldman and Grant Shapps personally approved rules on how the party’s controversial election spending was managed.
Leaked documents show how the party instructed its local campaign teams to handle declarations around the so-called Battlebus campaign.
Ten police forces have now launched probes into election spending, amid claims that tens of thousands of pounds were wrongly declared and rules broken.
The leaked emails make clear the arrangement had the ‘personal sponsorship’ of Grant Shapps and was ‘signed off’ by Tory campaign chief Lynton Crosby, deputy chairman Stephen Gilbert and Lord Feldman – and was ‘supported’ by Lord Feldman’s sister Deborah, who works at Tory HQ.
Published by the Guido Fawkes website, they said the cost of hotels and Battlebuses would be ‘accounted for out of central campaign spend’.
They also pointed out transport within constituencies was not included. ‘For legal reasons the Battlebus cannot ferry peoThe ple around the seat’, one email said.
An investigation by the Daily Mail and Channel 4 News has already revealed accommodation costs of activists bussed around the country by the Tories to campaign in key seats were recorded as national rather than local expenses.
Last night, Channel 4 News reported how Nottinghamshire Police have begun obtaining material about business minister Anna Soubry’s election spending.
It said the force plans to go to court to apply for a time extension so it can continue looking at the expense returns of the Broxtowe MP, along with those of Sherwood MP Mark Spencer. leaked Battlebus emails take the scandal to the heart of Tory Central Office – and suggest that key figures were conscious of spending rules.
Only weeks ago, Mr Shapps denied he had a role in ensuring ‘compliance’.
Deliberate breach of spending limits by individual candidates – usually around £15,000 – is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or a one-year jail term. To
‘Adminstrative error to blame’
secure convictions, police would need to prove a deliberate attempt to dodge rules or hide cash. Any MP found guilty would be barred from holding public office for three years, triggering a new election.
In theory, the Tories could lose their 12-seat majority if cases are proved.
Tory officials have admitted the party failed to declare some £38,000 worth of hotel costs for activists to the Electoral Commission. They denied wrongdoing and blamed an ‘administrative error’.
This week the party faced a court order from the watchdog for failing to hand over paperwork linked to the probe.
After the order was produced the party supplied the documents. The emails emerged as a fresh complaint was made about Tory spending during last year’s election campaign.
Former Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders demanded Devon and Cornwall Police investigate letters sent in David Cameron’s name to voters in Torbay.
One said: ‘The only way you can stop Ed Miliband and the SNP taking us back to square one is to vote Conservative here in Torbay.’
A Tory Party spokesman said that the letters were rightly classed under national spending because they ‘made absolutely no reference to any individual candidate’.
Last night Miss Soubry issued a tweet denying any probe into her spending. But Nottinghamshire Police confirmed it was awaiting documents, saying: ‘When we have had access to that material we will be able to determine whether an investigation should be conducted.’