Criminal acts may have handed the Tories the 2015 general election
Tarred by association: Did David Cameron authorise the criminal overspending alleged against 24 of his MPs? [Image: Getty.]
After spending irregularities were discovered in three by-elections, and Craig McKinlay’s victory over Nigel Farage was cast into doubt during the general election last year, one might have been able to believe that these were isolated incidents.
But 23 further alleged spending violations – all connected to the use of so-called ‘Battle Buses’?
That would strain credibility beyond its limits.
Two dozen Tory MPs failed to declare thousands of pounds spent on their winning election campaigns in marginal seats, a Mirror investigation has found.
None of the 24 Conservative candidates whose constituencies were visited by the controversial RoadTrip battlebuses included the cost within their election budget locally.
And 20 of them could have breached strict campaign spending limits had they declared it.
Breaching these limits is a criminal offence and could lead to calls for by-elections.
The Tories deny the costs should have been declared as part of local campaigns.
We found 20 of the seats visited were within £2,000 of strict spending limits – meaning the budget would have been broken had the RoadTrip cost been included.
The Tories formed a Government with a majority of 12 seats after outspending Labour by £3million in the general election last May.
The RoadTrip campaign is already being investigated by the Conservative disciplinary board following allegations of sexual harassment and bullying by organiser Mark Clarke who has been kicked out of the party.
If your MP is among the following, then you should contact your local police force and demand an investigation.
Breaching electoral spending limits is a crime. Conspiracy (if they all agreed to this behaviour) is a crime.
And any such activity that sways the entire outcome of a general election is a very serious crime indeed.
Here’s the list. Is your MP among these suspects?
Craig McKinlay
James Heappey
Michelle Donelan
Michael Ellis
Scott Mann
Graham Evans
Mark Spencer
Luke Hall
James Berry
Anna Soubry
Nigel Mills
David Morris
Marcus Fysh
Stuart Andrew
Oliver Colvile
Maggie Throup
Karl McCartney
Kevin Foster
Marcus Jones
Amanda Milling
Alex Chalk
Mike Wood
Paul Scully
David Nuttall
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If there were that many criminal acts of fraud then the whole election should be re-run, not just those affected by this particular issue. It would seem at the very least an investigation should be under way to expose any other fraud.
I sincerely hope something is done about this. Can you imagine if Labour (or any other political party for that matter) had done this; it would be all over the main stream media and the tories would be demanding that heads should roll.
I’m going to start asking questions about my local Tory MP.
He took out a controversial four-page wraparound ad in a local paper (broadsheet), the week before the election. How much did that cost?
The problem is that stuff like that will be done on a “mates rates” basis, he will pay a lot less per page than your local ironmongers will that’s for sure. When certain papers with private affiliation with a parliamentarian or party can give cheaper access to it’s friends it creates a situation where media access to political parties and activists isn’t a fair market. If every paper had to give every party the same rate for advertisements it would create an interesting situation in terms of media access.
Thanks for the heads-up, but it would be helpful if you listed the constituency each MP represents.
Are you suggesting people don’t know their own MP?
Graham Evans = Weaver Vale (adjoining Gideot’s Tatton constituency). He’s my MP
I hate correcting peoples errors, but you’ve spelt the Chancellors name wrong – that ‘e’ should be an ‘i’, and you’ve put a ‘G’ there by mistake. Sorry!
The criminal conspiracy is a strong way to go, as the out of date laws state cases for expenses fraud have to be brought within 12 months of the election. This is obviously no longer possible, but the common thread of the same people the same names coming up with hotel & battle bus expenses, and the number known (SO FAR!) all indicate a criminal conspiracy. There must be laws under organised crime that should be tested.
A re-run of the seats known about would be the minimum we demand.
It is possible to bring a case re: spending, as 12 months haven’t passed since the election.
However, I’m a big fan of the conspiracy idea.
Mike, you’re quite right! It just feels like a lot,lot, longer! Every day is such a struggle to keep up with the dirty laws being hustled through the system without debate, the corruption, the nepotism, the attacks on the working people and our living standards, and the disgusting DWP/ IDS attacks on the most vulnerable with their latest Stalinist-type damaging forced psychological programming by amateurs of the ill & unemployed, it has been a total slog! Your blog though helps enormously in precision cutting through to the heart of the issues every time. Thank you!
Well, thank you!
The Electoral Commission is limited to a penalty of a maximum fine of £20,000. The police have already said that they are not interested.
Not interested in investigating a potential conspiracy to influence the result of a general election?
Hardly surprising considering the state of law enforcement under the Conservatives but, for the record, which officer – in which force – stated this?
That’s just so we know who to blame.
Their money buys them power and position it’s the Tory way!!
Teflon Tory Bstards, why is it that they are above the laws of Britain?.
A conservative mafia in the 21st century way of control, wow!
As a political party, are they bound to submit accounts? to whom, and when. Plenty of avenues, lets hope one turns into a autobahn.
Yes – to the Electoral Commission. These accounts are also supposed to be accurate, of course.
Yes Mike, DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY, DEFINITELY, Keep up the good work. NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!!!
I’m very interested to see how this one pans out. Very interested indeed!
Not much point being critical of third world and other nations dodgy election methods
if we are not whiter than white with our own election conduct. Just as well chuck out all the election rules and regulations as the people who are supposed to apply and police them must all be Cons or just to lazy or useless to apply a robust rule of law. We are as corrupt as those we criticise and the press sit on their Tory hands.
No surprise here my Tory MP David Morris is on the list.. Despicable Tory Scum
Surely a conspiracy to illegally seize power by breaching electoral law is treason, isn’t it?
Does that have any time limitation?
I rather doubt it.
And sadly, I’m not even surprised by it anymore, which shows how low the scum have sunk.
tories are absolutely corrupt and untrustworthy. I cant bear to see or hear one speak. shame on their supporters who are soon to become victims of their corrupt policies and regret their naivety in voting for them.
Not surprised to see mine on the list at all, Michelle Donelan. How do I go about finding out spending on her campaign and requesting this information, and then pursuing this matter further Mike?
According to the Electoral Commission, the Returning Officer is responsible for making candidate spending returns (the documents showing how much they spent) available for public inspection.
The Returning Officer is usually the Chief Executive of your local council – I think the department that can tell you for sure is Electoral Services.
Anna Soubry ???!!! – No surprise there – What a hateful b*tch …
No doubt about it this looks very much like a system of deliberate fraud rather than just isolated incidents. However, I have heard that the Chief Constable of Kent has said that he isn’t interested because of time limitations on proceedings. It is vital that these matters are investigated carefully and fully because to me it looks like deliberately organised and systematic fraud.
Thanks for highlighting this. We definitely need to keep up the pressure and demand action as it isn’t yet a whole year. Otherwise they will ignore it and keep doing the dirty.
Right behind you!
Cameron is looking to get rid of 90% of Tory Associations. Total control freak.
I think it is worth investigating seats where the Tories lost also, places like Chester and Hampstead & Kilburn where they expected to win and didn’t especially. Establishing that this goes well beyond those seats would be valuable in a criminal investigation. Make those complaints…!
My MP (recently revealed as being the least active MP in the country) underwent a Police investigation for Electoral Fraud shortly after last year’s elections. It came to light that he had passed on a list of potential Labour voters to the local UKIP candidate (who clearly wouldn’t be a threat) in order to try to sway them to vote UKIP instead of Labour. Not only was this immoral & fraudulent, it was also clearly a breach of the Data Protection Act – yet nobody ever got to hear the outcome of the enquiry & it all got conveniently swept under the carpet.
Raise with your local M.Ps if not on that list and email Jeremy Corybn with request for police action!
This is before we consider the 200,000 ballot papers that were stolen from a journey between Essex & East Sussex.72,000 were destined for the Hastings & Rye constituent,with the remaining 130,000 coming to Eastbourne.New papers were issued so that the stolen one`s could not be used.Nothing more has been said about the the matter.Nor have the stolen papers surfaced any where.Now i`m also reading about global problems from other countries.Postal votes received on or just before election day,with 2nd class postage, & cases were papers just simply vanished.
they got in on a lie, and still perpetuating the lie. so a little constructive accounting is not a suprize to me. there should be a parliamentory commision to look into election fraud, after all they have defrauded the party and the public.