Tories fined record £70,000 by Electoral Commission after investigation into wrongly reported election expenses
Watchdog was highly critical after finding at least £104,765 in missing payments from 2015 campaign
THE TORIES have been fined a record £70,000 after an investigation into election campaign expenses, the Electoral Commission has announced.
It has concluded there were “significant failures” by the Conservative Party to report accurately on how much it spent on campaigning at three by-elections in 2014 and at the 2015 general election.
The commission concluded its spending return in 2015 was missing payments worth at least £104,765, and has reported one matter to the police.
Its report this morning said: “Separately, payments worth up to £118,124 were either not reported to the Commission or were incorrectly reported by the party. A portion of this amount should have been included in the Party’s return but wasn’t.
“Another portion was put into the Party’s return when it was candidate spending in a number of constituencies where the Party spent money promoting individual candidates.”
There were also missing invoices for 81 payments to the value of £52,924, while it failed to maintain records explaining the amounts it invoiced to candidates in three 2014 by-elections, for work on their campaigns.
follows the news a dozen police forces have sent files to the Crown Prosecution Service as part of a probe into the Conservatives' 2015 election expenses.
After giving out its biggest ever fine, Sir John Holmes - chair of the Electoral Commission - warned that political parties now might see such punishments “as the cost of doing business”.
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He said: “Our investigation uncovered numerous failures by a large, well-resourced and experienced Party to ensure that accurate records of spending were maintained and that all of the Party’s spending was reported correctly.
“The rules established by Parliament for political parties and their finances are there to ensure transparency and accountability.”
Sir John added: “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.”
On the issue of the Electoral Commission getting the power to increase fines, he said: “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.”
In response a Conservative Party spokesman said it had complied fully with the investigation and will pay the fines they have imposed.
They added: “This investigation and these fines relate to national spending by CCHQ (Conservative Campaign Headquarters), and the Conservative Party’s national spending return for the 2015 general election.
“As we have consistently said, the local agents of Conservative candidates correctly declared all local spending in the 2015 general election.”
The party said it admitted it had made “an administrative error” in not declaring the money – which it claimed represented just 0.6% of its national spending, and has since improved its accounting practices.
The Tories also sought to deflect blame elsewhere, adding: “Political parties of all colours have made reporting mistakes from time to time.
“The Labour Party and Liberal Democrats both failed to declare sums of money which constituted a larger proportion of their national expenditure in the 2015 general election.
“Both have been fined by the Electoral Commission, and the Liberal Democrats are also under police investigation.”
Apologising for their mistakes, the party also suggested “given the range of technical errors made by a number of political parties and campaign groups” the Electoral Commission’s own rules could be “clarified or improved”.
But the Commission said there was a "realistic prospect" the party gained a "financial advantage" over opponents in the 2015 general election.
It follows allegations the party incorrectly recorded spending on a "battle bus" tour which took activists to campaign in key marginal seats as a national expense, rather than counting towards individual candidates' spending limits.
Among the seats investigated by the Commission was South Thanet, where Craig Mackinlay narrowly beat former Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
It was revealed this week he was questioned by police for six hours over his election spending last Friday.