Craig Mackinlay MP in court over election fraud allegations

South Thanet MP, Craig Mackinlay, is due in court today alongside his agent and a Conservative Party activist to answer charges of electoral fraud relating to the 2015 general election.

Mackinlay was found by a Channel 4 investigation to have declared a considerable amount of election expenditure as belonging to his party's national campaign when it should allegedly have been declared as local spending. Adding this expenditure to his expenses return would have put him a long way over the legal spending limit.

During the election campaign Nigel Farage and his team warned that Mackinlay was spending more money than he was allowed and we will soon find out if a judge agrees. Many other Conservative MPs were found in the Channel 4 investigation to have done the same thing but the CPS only brought a case again Mackinlay which suggests either a show trial given the importance of that election or that Mackinlay and his team were doing more than just following advice from the party.

Even if he is found to have cheated the 2015 election a judge would have no power to remove Mackinlay from his post as there has been another election unless he is sentenced to more than 3 months in prison.

Reasons to vote Conservative #5: More than 30 Tory MPs are under investigation by 14 police forces for expenses fraud

Theresa May will allow alleged election fraud MPs to stand again

Veteran Labour MP, Dennis Skinner, asks Theresa May if she will give assurances that the current Tory MPs who are being considered for prosecution for expenses fraud from the 2015 election will not be allowed to stand in June. She said she stands behind them all.

Craig Mackinley MP interviewed under caution for 6 hours over election fraud allegations

Conservative MP, Craig Mackinlay, has been interviewed by Kent Police under caution for 6 hours as part of their investigation into alleged overspending in the last election.

Mackinlay is believed to be one of six Conservative MPs who face possible criminal charges and having their election result declared void for alleged fraudulent expenditure after Channel 4 found what it believed to be significant amounts of missing expenditure and expenditure wrongly declared against national campaigns rather than local.

The upshot of this is that several MPs are believed to have overspent by a considerable amount, breaking electoral law and giving themselves an unfair advantage. The South Thanet seat won by Mackinley was contested by Nigel Farage and the Conservatives threw the kitchen sink at it to stop him winning but in doing so it is alleged they overspent by as much as double the legal limit and hid the illegal expenses by claiming that people bussed in to the constituency or sent to work there full time on the campaign were actually working on their national campaign.

Police send Tory election fraud file to CPS

Police investigating allegations of dodgy election spending in the 2015 general election have sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider criminal prosecutions.

The 24 elections that were initially under investigation have reportedly been whittled down to 12 with Thanet South in the list of cases to be considered for charges. The investigations all relate to alleged overspending in elections, primarily as a result of claiming local spending as national and failing to declare expenditure.

The Tories are now faced with the prospect of having to contest several by-elections without cheating.

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.

Derby Conservative jailed for election fraud

A Conservative councillor in Derby has been jailed for two months for giving a false address to fraudulently stand in a local election.

Cllr Richard Smalley successfully stood in last year's local elections for Derby City Council but resigned 10 days later after rumours appeared on social media about his fraudulent declaration.

His solicitor claimed that he was driven to commit the fraud because he was stressed.

Tories lose attempt to block police investigation into Craig Mackinlay's election expenses

The Conservative Party have failed in their attempt to stop Kent Police from getting a further 12 months to investigate allegations of election expense fraud in last year's election in Thanet South.

Ten police forces are investigating allegations of systematic fraud in expenses returns mainly involving the Conservatives but with a couple of Labour and Lib Dem candidates thrown in for good measure. The alleged fraud relates to declaring local campaign expenditure as national expenditure to avoid going over spending limits on paper.

Some of the expenditure alleged to be fraudulent includes claiming that hotel bills for activists bussed in for a local campaign were part of a national campaign, mailshots sent out in David Cameron's name targeting the constituency they were delivered to were national campaign material and transporting activists to support local campaigns was national spending.

The magistrate granting the extension for Thanet South has suggested that the allegations are so serious that Craig Mackinley's victory could be declared void and a by-election called. The Tories threw everything at Thanet South to stop Nigel Farage from becoming an MP and Farage himself said after the election that the Tories had "swindled" it by overspending but that he wouldn't make a complaint because he didn't want to be accused of sour grapes.

Kent Police now have an extra 12 months to investigate the allegations whilst the Tories are left with the bill for the very expensive lawyers they hired to try and stop the extension being granted.