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Wednesday, 10 May 2017

No Conservative Politicians will face charges over 2015 election

No Tory politicians will face charges for breaches of expenses rules during the 2015 general election.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it had examined files from 14 police forces and while there was evidence of inaccurate spending returns it did not "meet the test" for further action.

It is still investigating the Conservative campaign in South Thanet.
The Conservatives said the allegations had been "politically motivated" and a "waste of police time".

The inquiry related to claims some "battle bus" campaigning costs in the 2015 election were wrongly recorded.


It was alleged the party spent tens of thousands of pounds on local campaigns - including on "battle bus" visits by activists - which were either not declared or were wrongly registered as national spending.

Under complex election spending rules, parties must disclose national spending separately from money used to promote each candidate, and separate national and local limits apply.

Q&A: Conservative election expenses row
No charges over 2015 battle bus cases

In March the Tories were fined a record £70,000 by the Electoral Commission, which criticised the party for resisting its investigation although it was unable to prove any intention to make false declarations.

But following a lengthy investigation, the Crown Prosecution Service said it would take no further action against either candidates or party officials.
It said a file from Kent Police on the South Thanet campaign was recently received and was "under consideration".

'Insufficient evidence'
In a statement, it said it was an offence to knowingly make a false declaration but in order to bring charges it must be proved that suspects knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration.

"Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest," said its head of special crime Nick Vamos.
"We reviewed the files in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and have concluded the tests in the Code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised."

The Conservative Party, which has always insisted administrative errors were to blame rather than any intention to deceive, said they were glad the matter had been "finally resolved" but said it regretted that the police had become involved.

"After a very thorough investigation, we are pleased that the legal authorities have confirmed what we believed was the case all along: that these Conservative candidates did nothing wrong," said party chair Patrick McLoughlin.

"These were politically motivated and unfounded complaints that have wasted police time."

The allegations came to light following an investigation by Channel 4 News and the Daily Mirror.

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