Corruption everywhere

Nicholas Wilson is a banking whistleblower. He exposed millions of pounds of “unreasonable” customer charges by HSBC. That led to a ruling by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on 20 January this year to force the bank to pay back £4m to 6,700 customers after wrongly charging interest on credit card debt.

But Wilson believes the true amount HSBC owes is £1bn.

Taking on Rudd

Now, Wilson is taking on Tory election fraud, among other things. He has decided to stand as an independent MP candidate in his local constituency of Hastings and Rye. And he told The Canary that “anti-corruption” will be the focus of his campaign:

Nothing is done about corruption in the UK. I have been exposing the most serious infiltration of HSBC into every strata of UK life, from the BBC, secret services and every government department. The cover-ups by captured regulators, the [alleged] election fraud of incumbent MP Amber Rudd, the censorship of mainstream media. Nothing is done, and Labour are conspicuous by their failure to act. There needs to be a voice in parliament for whistleblowers and someone to hold corrupt MPs to account.

Wilson says he is “left-wing and a socialist”. And mental health awareness will also feature in his campaign. As someone who has spoken openly about depression, he is the perfect candidate to campaign on this issue. But Tory election fraud is going to be central, too.

Tory election fraud

As it stands, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is considering charges against 30 Conservatives, including numerous MPs. They relate to alleged expenses, like the infamous Tory ‘Battle Bus’, which some say Conservative MPs should have declared as local spending, but which the Tories actually declared as national expenditure. This means that many MPs may have breached electoral law over spending guidelines.

Wilson says:

I believe both the last election and the EU referendum were run on fraud. And if Channel 4 and The Sunday Times hadn’t spiked articles before the last election about David Cameron’s corruption, he would never have been re-elected.

Splitting the vote?

There may well be criticisms from many about Wilson splitting the Labour vote in Hastings and Rye. At the 2015 general election, Rudd had a not-unbeatable majority of 4,796. So it could mean the seat becomes a Labour target. But this doesn’t concern Wilson. He insists:

I keep repeating the same thing. Labour is not squeaky clean – that is probably why it doesn’t tackle corruption. It has been making a lot of noise recently about tax evasion, but so have the Tories. I’ve had more support from Tory (Jesse Norman) and SNP (George Kerevan) MPs. Nothing whatsoever from Labour, despite meetings.
Enough is enough

Wilson recognises the need to “get the Tories out”. He says he will support Labour to win the election and “would urge people in other constituencies to vote for them”. But in Hastings and Rye, he plans to tackle Tory election fraud, and corruption more broadly. And when asked why people should vote Nicholas Wilson, he simply says: