Election spending

SIR – After being found guilty of assisting a breach of the law on electoral campaign spending in the South Thanet constituency in the 2015 election, Marion Little has been given a suspended sentence (report, January 10). The MP for the seat, Craig Mackinlay, was cleared of breaking election law at the same trial.

Most will think that the legal process has unfairly targeted a good person where three of the most experienced lawyers as judges declared the charges against the accused were wrong for legal reasons. The Court of Appeal, led by the Lord Chief Justice, had ruled unanimously that the charges against Marion Little and the others accused could not stand. The Crown Prosecution Service appealed to the Supreme Court, which overruled that decision.

Before the case, but after the election spending returns had been submitted, the Electoral Commission had to change their guidance. Everyone expects they will have to do so again.

It is not surprising that many find the situation and the partial conviction less than satisfactory.

In Marion Little’s situation, I would feel unwilling to appeal, because even if the Appeal Court upheld the application to overturn the convictions, I would already know the view of the Supreme Court.

For completeness, I record that I have known Marion Little since she helped in the 1975 Woolwich West by-election, when I was first elected, and that I was her candidate in the 1979 general election.

She would not knowingly have broken the law.

Sir Peter Bottomley MP (Con) London SW1