Ed Miliband has Labour’s six election pledges inscribed in stone – then Iain McNicol failed to list it as an election expense.

How will Labour’s right-wingers manage to blame Jeremy Corbyn for this?

Seriously, the fine raises further concerns about the party’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, at a time when his conduct is already being questioned in relation to his role in the ‘purge’ of members prior to the leadership election that ended in September.

Let’s not forget, also that a much larger investigation, involving dozens of police forces, is looking into the possibility that many Conservative MPs overspent their way into Parliament and failed to declare it.

The findings of that inquiry may render this fine insignificant and could even topple the Conservative government’s precarious 12-seat majority in the House of Commons.

That is something to remember when perusing press coverage of both investigations.

Or, as this Twitter user put it:

Labour has been fined £20,000 by the Electoral Commission, the largest imposed by the body in its history, for undeclared election spending during the 2015 campaign, including more than £7,000 on the so-called “Ed Stone”.

The commission launched an investigation into two payments totalling £7,614 missing from the party’s election return that were spent on the stone tablet on which then Labour leader, Ed Miliband, had carved his six key election pledges, promising to display it in the Downing Street rose garden if he won the election.

The problems with the party’s spending came to light when the commission published the return in January, and journalists immediately contacted the commission because they could not find any reference to the 8ft 6in, two-tonne slab of limestone. The commission then found the item was indeed missing from the return, and began a full inquiry.

After the commission launched its investigation, the party undertook an internal review, unearthing 24 other undeclared election expenses totalling £109,777.

However, the commission’s investigation then identified 49 further missing payments totalling £11,357 that related to the transport of the party’s activists on the Labour Express tour and Labour Students tour during the election.

The commission also found invoices were missing from the Labour party’s return, with 33 bills totalling £34,392 absent from the accounts.

The commission said Labour’s general secretary, Iain McNicol, who is also its registered treasurer, had committed two election offences, involving missing payments of £123,748 from the campaign spending return and for failing to deliver invoices and receipts of more than £200 for payments totalling £34,392.

Source: Labour fined £20,000 for undeclared election spending including for Ed Stone | Politics | The Guardian

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