Tory battlebus- election fraud or national campaigning?
Discussion
Esseesse said:
Jimboka said:
They won by a landslide, so irrelevant..
It doesn't matter what the result was.From what I remember the story was that Conservatives must have breached the spending limit just on accommodation for the number of people that were dropped into the area.
I'd think most people would think that that does matter.
This has the potential to be very significant. Along with Channel 4, AF Neil has got his teeth into this one as well now.
Electoral law is clear & breaches can be punished by disqualification from office, which would mean by-elections.
The alleged fraud was focused on marginal seats in the GE. 20-30 possibly, plus a number of by-elections. With a slim parliamentary majority, this could be big trouble for the Tories.
Would be delightful to see Anna Soubry turfed out for example.
Tories are obstructing electoral commission & failing to disclose information (I'm guessing there's a fair degree of panic at CCHQ).
http://www.channel4.com/news/high-court-challenge-...
Electoral law is clear & breaches can be punished by disqualification from office, which would mean by-elections.
The alleged fraud was focused on marginal seats in the GE. 20-30 possibly, plus a number of by-elections. With a slim parliamentary majority, this could be big trouble for the Tories.
Would be delightful to see Anna Soubry turfed out for example.
Tories are obstructing electoral commission & failing to disclose information (I'm guessing there's a fair degree of panic at CCHQ).
http://www.channel4.com/news/high-court-challenge-...
desolate said:
BlackLabel said:
The silence from Labour is deafening. I bet they've done exactly the same.
The way Alan Johnson and Michael Portillo tried to pretend they didn't know anything about it on This Week leads me to believe you are correct. The Tories have very limited numbers in local constituencies compared to Labour, which is why they have to pay for postage or pay rather than rely on volunteers, for lots of their leafletting. Tories also have more money than Labour.
The initial issues appear to have arisen in fighting UKIP.
XCP said:
Beats me. If anything, being pestered by 'activists' from any party would pretty much ensure I didn't vote for them.
I think the door-knocking thing is more to ensure that X-Party supporters actually get out and vote rather than converting Conservatives into Socialists and vice versa.edh said:
desolate said:
BlackLabel said:
The silence from Labour is deafening. I bet they've done exactly the same.
The way Alan Johnson and Michael Portillo tried to pretend they didn't know anything about it on This Week leads me to believe you are correct. The Tories have very limited numbers in local constituencies compared to Labour, which is why they have to pay for postage or pay rather than rely on volunteers, for lots of their leafletting. Tories also have more money than Labour.
The initial issues appear to have arisen in fighting UKIP.
It was covered again yesterday on the Daily Politics but I can't help feeling the Police are investigating because they feel like they need to be seen to be doing something. And quite why it needs 9 separate police force investigations I don't know.
The end result I think will be no further action from the Police. But there will be clarifications from the Electoral Commission about how expenses of this nature can be allocated in the future.
Guardian said:
A judge has raised the prospect that some of the Conservatives’ general election victories could be voided as he granted more time for Kent police to investigate allegations of electoral fraud by the party.
District Judge Barron outlined in court the reasons for extending the time period for Kent police to examine the accusations, after a Channel 4 investigation raised questions about Tory election spending in South Thanet – where the party was fighting Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
District Judge Barron outlined in court the reasons for extending the time period for Kent police to examine the accusations, after a Channel 4 investigation raised questions about Tory election spending in South Thanet – where the party was fighting Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
Guardian said:
The Conservatives, whose MP Craig Mackinlay won the hotly contested seat, took the unprecedented step of trying to oppose the court extension requested by the police.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/01/judge-grants-extension-to-police-investigation-into-tory-electionGassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff