Lib Dems fined £20k and reported to police over £184,676 of fraudulent expenditure

The Lib Dems have been hit with the maximum £20k fine for making false expenditure declarations totalling £184,676.

An Electoral Commission found 307 items of expenditure from last year's general election we fraudulently split between local and national campaigns. They consider the offence so serious that they have also reported the party to the Metropolitan Police to consider criminal charges.

The Electoral Commission is also calling on the British government to give them more powers as they rightly point out that a £20k fine is peanuts when parties are spending millions on election campaigns. The Electoral Commission should be able to impose larger fines, recover fraudulent expenditure and issue court proceedings itself, including petitions to nullify election results. It is ridiculous that the body responsible for ensuring elections are free, fair and not corrupt is basically powerless to prevent corrupt practices.