It’s been a bad week for the Tories – and that 17 seat majority is starting to look a lot smaller. Hot on the heels of Philip Hammond’s belated and chastening climbdown over NICs came the news that a dozen police forces have handed files to the Crown Prosecution Service over allegations up to 20 Tory MPs in marginal seats broke local campaign spending limits at the general election. As a result of a separate investigation, the Electoral Commission is to fine the party £70,000 over “significant failures” in its expenses reporting.
The majority of the police complaints concern constituencies visited by the Tories’ RoadTrip2015 battlebuses – a campaign already tarnished by allegations of bullying and sexual harassment among young activists. It is alleged that the party registered RoadTrip’s transport and accommodation costs as national spending despite its use as part of individual MPs’ constituency campaigns Party spending on the latter is limited to £15,000, and the key contention in play is whether money spent locally should have been declared locally.
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