Former Tory MP’s election fund took secret payments from missing football club loan
Mr Mackintosh, on the left, recently tweeted this picture with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.
Tory sleaze isn’t confined to sex scandals, you know.
According to the BBC, it seems former Northampton South MP David Mackintosh siphoned money from a loan he had arranged to redevelop Northampton Town Football Club into his election fund in 2015.
He stood down as an MP earlier this year, after a campaign to deselect him over his role in the affair.
Mr Mackintosh, as leader of Northampton Borough Council in 2015, had been given delegated powers with senior council officials, to push through a series of loans to the football club.
Only a small percentage of the money passed to the company involved made its way to the stadium builders, who walked out over unpaid bills.
The League One club defaulted on the loan and faced a winding up order by HMRC. It almost went under before a takeover in 2015.
A police inquiry into the missing public money is looking into allegations of theft and fraud, bribery, misconduct in public office and electoral offences.
This does not involve a sitting Conservative MP, but it does indicate that the practices and general behaviour of party members deserve scrutiny.
Around 30 Tory MPs and their election agents were recently investigated for alleged electoral offences in the 2015 election. While only one prosecution is taking place, it is suspicious that more information has come to light since.
Is there more to follow, involving other – sitting – MPs?
A Conservative MP’s general election fund took hidden payments from a developer as a multimillion-pound loan he personally oversaw paid out.
More than £37,000 was channelled to David Mackintosh’s 2015 campaign from 1st Land Ltd, while he was leader of Northampton Borough Council.
Most of a £10.25m loan he signed off to redevelop Northampton Town FC has vanished and police are investigating.
Howard Grossman, of 1st Land Ltd, and Mr Mackintosh deny any wrong-doing.
Documents obtained by the BBC show eight people linked to the developer made donations to the Northampton South Conservative Association between April and September 2014.
During this time Mr Mackintosh was the Conservatives’ candidate to contest Northampton South at the 2015 general election – a seat he went on to win.
Source: Northampton Town loan: David Mackintosh’s election fund took secret payments – BBC News
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So some prominent Tories are dishonest and/or corrupt, allegedly. Shock! Horror! Who knew?
Try to remember that those of us who frequent websites like this are a lot more aware of current events in politics than most people.
If I tried to mention most of the matters discussed on This Site at the pub, I’d get blank stares, accusations of being boring and possibly even threats of violence.
He was Northampton South actually. His successor, former MEP Andrew Lewer, only held the seat by 1,000 or so. The Northampton North MP is another Tory, Michael Ellis, with a majority of only 807, who appears on the ‘Sexminster’ list of 40 undesirables. So we shouldn’t have to wait too long for both seats to be Labour…
Thanks for the correction.
Seem to remember a biblical saying to the effect that ‘bad associations spoil useful habits’. The people associating with toryies will get a bad rep at this rate.
This appears to be a case for the Fraud Squad.