Torbay Election Expenses Update and New Questions

According to the Devon & Cornwall Constabulary all matters in relation to the expenses returns from the General Election 2015 that relate to our newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez have been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. They in turn have referred the matter as a “managed” investigation to West Mercia Police. They now hold responsibility for the ongoing investigation in order to provide the complete and clear separation between Devon & Cornwall Police and the elected PCC.

On 19th May the Police were successful at magistrates court in extending the time limit on prosecutions for a further year in relation to all the MPs and their Agents in Devon & Cornwall.

Investigations will begin into:

Whether the expense of bringing activists to Torbay to campaign for Kevin Foster should have been declared locally or nationally?

Whether the cost of the mention of the battle bus locally in relation to canvass cards should have been fully declared on the General Election return and not apportioned to local council candidates and the Mayoral campaign?

Whether the omission of said battle bus canvass cards from council candidate expense returns bring council candidates and their agent under investigation, or whether this was an attempt by the General Election Agent to pass off costs onto others without their knowledge?

Where other costs of the battle bus should have been declared?

Whether the expense of direct-mail shots naming the constituency as one where people should vote Conservative were a local expense given there was only one Conservative Candidate in the constituency whom they could be asking people to vote for, or whether it was correctly omitted from the return?

These are probably the main issues but now there are some more and one is very serious indeed.

Thanks to a right-wing blogger I’ve had to check my own expense return. Following a complaint from someone based on the blogger’s allegations into my own return the police quite rightly have had a good look.

The Devon & Cornwall police (who should have passed the complaint to another force in my opinion, after all which Police & Crime Commissioner could my Agent or I complain to if dissatisfied with their conduct!) acted on the complaint and requesting copies of election materials from the original suppliers.

Having inspected my expense return and my literature this was their conclusion:

“Initial enquires with regards to these allegations have not provided evidence to support the allegation therefore no further police action will be taken at this time. This includes any consideration of an application to extend time limits for such alleged offences.”

The New Questions for the Tories

In having to look again at my returns I came across an item correctly declared by myself that I had previously overlooked in relation to the Conservative return. I properly declared an amount for telephone canvassing. No such costs are recorded on the Conservative election expense return.

While checking the Conservative return for a declaration of those costs I then noticed something else. It is the date entered under “Date you became the candidate”.

The date is usually the date of the dissolution of Parliament that was Monday 30th March 2015 but Alison and Kevin have put it down as 10/4/14 – over a year early – on their Short Campaign Return and 10/4/15 on their Long Campaign Return.

This is probably a clerical error the candidate and agent will wish to report to the Electoral Commission if they haven’t already done so before investigations begin in earnest.

It does however raise yet another question and that is when exactly did the Conservative Candidate become the Candidate? This is very important as the limited expense limits of the Short Campaign kick in from the date declared and a false declaration is a criminal offence.

This is what the rules say for the Short Campaign:

“The earliest date you can officially become a candidate is the day that the UK Parliament is dissolved. Parliament is scheduled to be dissolved on 30 March 2015. You will become a candidate on this date if you or others have already announced your intention to stand. If your intention to stand has not been announced by the day of the dissolution of Parliament, you will officially become a candidate on the earlier of the date you or another person announce your intention to stand, or the date when you are nominated.”

The key is “You will become a candidate on this date (30th March) if you or others have already announced your intention to stand. “

A chat with the Electoral Commission on this point may also be necessary given the literature and campaign materials that were distributed by the Tories between the 30 March and 10th April in the Torbay Constituency.