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Tory Party faces record fine and maybe more

16/3/2017

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Op-ed: The long running but underreported saga of allegations that the Conservative Party broke election spending rules rolls on but there is some news.

Thursday there are reports that the Tory Party has been fined a record £70,000 by the Electoral Commission. That is a five figure sum fine for a six figure sum accounting error.

The electoral commission wants to be able to issue fines in the hundreds of thousands of pounds rather than tens but is not allowed to. That may now change.

Currently the maximum fine in each case is £20,000. An electoral commission spokesperson said at least one of the incidents the Tory party have been fined for warranted a much higher fine.

The Tory party has until April 13 to pay the fines and has said it will comply.

It will now be down to police investigating the allegations to determine if auditing errors were accidental or deliberate.

Last week unelected PM Theresa May and her government were allegedly worried about the investigation.

Will the fines have alleviated Tory worries?

Breaking electoral commission spending rules can result in jail time!

It can also in effect steal elections.

It's difficult to believe that the supposedly fiscally competent Tory Party could accidentally make such errors. They are hardly a new political party getting to grips with electoral rules and regulations.

Inaccurate expense recording by the Tory party was found in three 2014 by-elections and during the 2015 general election campaign; a general election that they won against the odds.

That leaves people questioning whether the Tory party won the 2015 general election by fair or foul means.

Certainly news that the electoral commission says the Tory party was uncooperative with the investigation rings alarm bells.

Why were they to quote, guilty of unreasonably uncooperative conduct?

Thursday ITV news reports;
The investigation found:

  • - £104,765 of payments were missing from the 2015 general election spending return
  • - Separately, up to £118,124 was either not reported or was inaccurately reported
  • - 81 payments to the value of £52,924 were missing the required invoices or receipts
  • - At least some of the reported £38,996 Battlebus expenditure should have counted towards candidates' budgets, rather than counted as party spending
  • - £63,486.83 of Battlebus expenditure was not included in the report due to "human error"
  • - Records explaining the amounts invoiced to candidates were not maintained
Are there some deliberate auditing errors now classed as part of the campaign to win an election and worth the risk?

Other parties have faced lesser fines for errors but the Tory party appears to have carried out widespread election misspending since 2014.

The rules established by Parliament for political parties and their finances are there to ensure transparency and accountability.

Where the rules are not followed, it undermines voters’ confidence in our democratic processes, which is why political parties need to take their responsibilities under the legislation seriously.

This is the third investigation we have recently concluded where the largest political parties have failed to report up to six figure sums following major elections, and have been fined as a result.

There is a risk that some political parties might come to view the payment of these fines as a cost of doing business.
​

The Commission therefore needs to be able to impose sanctions that are proportionate to the levels of spending now routinely handled by parties and campaigners.

– SIR JOHN HOLMES, ELECTORAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN
Updates as available.

Full Electoral Commission announcement and background to allegations

Full ITV report here

​
http://www.onewomansomanyblogs.com/news/files-sent-to-cps-re-allegations-election-misspending
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Tory election fraud investigation deadline May 9

5/2/2017

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Op-ed: In the UK election spending is strictly controlled.

If you and your campaign managers overspend criminal charges can follow.

In 2016 as the UK geared up for local council and PCC elections, and London gets set to elect a new mayor, the Tory party was in the corruption spotlight.

They failed to answer allegations of serious overspending which in theory could and should put their place in government into question.

With a slim majority the Conservative party is in a precarious position.

In 2016 26 Tory MPS were under investigation for electoral fraud by the Electoral Commission in conjunction with the Crown Prosecution Service; more MPs than the Tory majority.

The story appears to have died a death but the investigation rolls on.

The deadline now appears to be May 9, 2017.

So time is tight and now seems a good time to get this news back out there.

In April 2016 we reported "Allegations of election overspending look set to undermine the legitimacy of the UK Tory government but will allegations be explained away?"


Once again Channel 4 news was at the heart of allegations against the Conservative party; little wonder the government is looking at curbing Channel 4.

​Early in 2015 C4 reported on the story of David Cameron's fathers' links to an off shore tax haven following it up a few months later with "
George Osborne family business' £6m offshore deal"; in 2016 it has been a series of revelations that appear to indicate the Tory Party did not play fair during the 2015 General Election campaign."


In November 2015 the Mail Online claimed Channel 4 could be sold off to raise £1billion adding David Cameron confirms ministers are 'looking at all the options' for the station."

Cameron was quick to insist he was a huge fan of Channel 4 harking back to its origins; he may however not like the direction its news service is now taking.


Channel 4 investigators have uncovered a series of overspends by the Tory party during its successful 2015 General Election campaign; a lot depends on what was local spending and what national.

Channel 4 News "obtained further undeclared receipts showing more than £38,000 was spent accommodating activists at hotels across the country, as part of the BattleBus2015 campaign. The spending was not declared to the Electoral Commission in accordance with the law. The investigation has also obtained evidence that the BattleBus campaign was focused on local candidates, suggesting the accommodation costs incurred should have been declared on local candidate spending returns, if so this could constitute a criminal offence."

The Conservative party claims administrative errors or should that be incompetence? Some however will suspect purposeful wrongdoing in order to win an election at any price.

And although the Conservative party and others may try to dismiss the allegations selective overspending at elections is a criminal offence.

The typical Tory method of firstly denying allegations and then back pedalling somewhat should not save them this time, assuming the Electoral Commission and our political system is fit for purpose.

Ultimately the Conservative Party confirmed to Channel 4 News that it had failed to declare the costs related to the Battlebus hotels due to what it described as an "administrative error" despite previously stating that all of the party's returns were accurate.

While in many ways it matters whether the extra costs were actually an administrative error or the Tories flouting the rules to get their way back into government either way it looks like they have broken the law.

Will the Conservative Party run true to form trying to dig up election spending inconsistencies across parties and maybe even reforming the electoral commission and its rules to suit?

In 2016 they employed 'smear' tactics against senior members of the Labour Party helped on by some in the party and mainstream media so inclined as distraction politics.


​The Electoral Commission has strict rules about election spending but does it have any teeth when it comes to wrongdoing?

"The Electoral Commission is an independent body set up by the UK Parliament. It regulates party and election finance and sets standards for well-run elections. The Commission is independent of Government and answerable to Parliament" but is it?
Channel 4 News's Political Correspondent Michael Crick has spent more than three months investigating Conservative Party expenses in 2014 and 2015.

Our first investigation in January revealed the party had spent more than £14,000 at the Royal Harbour Hotel in Ramsgate, which they claimed as a national rather than a local expense.

On 25 February we revealed huge sums of seemingly undeclared spending by the party in 2014 in three key by-elections in Newark, Clacton-on-Sea and Rochester and Strood.

We also revealed how the Party bussed activists to multiple "Stop Farage" events in South Thanet.

​ The costs, including overnight accommodation were not declared.

ElectioN expenses watchdog requests investigation extension?

The
elections watchdog has asked for more time to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Tory election spending, as a summit is called to consider the evidence revealed by Channel 4 News.

Following months of investigations by Channel 4 News, the Electoral Commission has requested an extension to the time limit available to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Conservative Party campaign spending review.

Bob Posner Director of Party and Election Finance & Legal Counsel at the Electoral Commission said, “The police and the CPS both have the power to apply to the Courts to extend the time limit on bringing criminal prosecutions for electoral offences to allow for full investigations to take place. We have requested that they consider doing this.”
You can read how the investigation has proceeded at ElectionExpenses.co.uk.

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/complaints
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/find-information-by-subject/political-parties-campaigning-and-donations/political-party-spending-at-elections
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3304019/Channel-4-sold-raise-1billion-Cameron-confirms-ministers-looking-options-station.html
https://www.channel4.com/news/conservative-election-expenses-the-timeline

More:
Tories accused of disregarding election spending law
Will Electoral Commission prosecute Tory Party?
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