Leicester West's Tory Spartans turn into snowflakes

Remember Jack Hickey, chair of Leicester Conservatives?

He was the one who told the Leicester Mercury:

"West is the target. It's where we think we can do well. 

"We are huge underdogs. We are outnumbered, we are outmatched but we are like the 300 Spartans. 

"We are fewer but we are better."

Well, things have moved on. First, because Hickey also told the Mercury that he would not seek to be a candidate himself and then emerged as the Tory candidate in Leicester West.

And second because the Spartans of Leicester Conservatives have turned out to be more like snowflakes.

Here is today's Leicester Mercury:

The Tories have accused a national pro-EU pressure group of trying to 'skew the vote' in the battle for Leicester West. 

Conservative candidate Jack Hickey has raised concerns about Open Britain's aim to get anti-Brexit supporters to travel to the constituency in the run up to the election on June 8 to support Labour's Liz Kendall who is defending a majority of just over 7,000. 

Open Britain itself says it is not trying to skew the vote but simply campaigning against what it describes as a 'a hard, destructive Brexit'

That's right: a candidate for the party that brought you the Battlebus2015 operation is now whingeing because activists are travelling to his constituency to campaign for another candidate.

This far from Spartan reaction confirms what I am hearing about the Conservatives campaign's failure to make progress in Leicester West.

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Mark Pack gives us four things to note about the record electoral fine levied against the Conservative Party: "The Conservative Party repeatedly refused to cooperate fully with the Electoral Commission investigation, requiring the Commission to go to court to get access to relevant evidence."

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Bob Mankoff is retiring as cartoon editor of the New Yorker after 20 years. He discusses some of his favourites with Jennifer Schuessler.

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On board the Conservatives' Battlebus2015

Embed from Getty Images

With Conservative expense returns for the last general election under scrutiny in more than 20 constituencies, an old post on Conservative Home makes interesting reading:

After the jollity of the first evening, the Battlebus departed from its base in Glastonbury, which we made our HQ for the six days or so. We travelled across the South West of England from Torbay in the south to Cheltenham in the north of the region, visiting five constituencies along the way. 

The days were long: 7.25 start, and arriving back at the hotel past midnight, sleep was short. I even dreamt about doorstep conversations (that’s conversations on the doorstep not with them). The work was tough with a lot of walking, and one had to stay switched on, because we knew how important these conversations were. 

Along with other activists I am still recovering, and turned to lozenges to sooth the throat after having numerous conversations a day. The miles of walking with heavy satchels full of leaflets took its toll on our wallets too, because the bill for sticky plasters and remedies for back pain was totting up. 

Regardless of the toil, the relationships that were formed during those six days or so between the activists on the battle bus were intense. Spending 18 hours a day with each other for six days and for some 24 hours, because we shared a twin room back at the hotel, we formed strong long lasting friendships.

And who paid for these larks?

The Eventbrite page for Battlebus 2015 tells us:

Following the fantastic success of our campaign days in the past year, Roadtrip2015 is delighted to invite you to join us in the final weeks of the General Election campaign, for this once in a lifetime opportunity, as we take Battlebus2015 all over the country for our brilliant candidates, hoping to hold current seats and win new ones! 

We will be running two buses for ten action packed days where we will based in Tamworth and Taunton/Glastonbury, travelling from here to seats all over the country. You can join us for the full ten days, or the first or last 5 days ...

We ask for a payment of just £50 (£25 for students) which will be small contribution towards the hotel costs. We will meet ALL the remaining hotel costs and ALL the food costs and provide FREE transport to the Battlebus2015 hotel from London.

Conservative MP interviewed under caution over election spending

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The Guardian reports that Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP who defeated Nigel Farage in Thanet South in 2015, was interviewed under caution for six hours by the police today.

It was the part of the inquiry into whether the party overspent in the constituency at the last general election.

The report goes on to quote an email from Karl McCartney, another Tory MP under investigation, who is helping his similarly place colleagues.

In that email ("seen by Sky News") McCartney writes that his colleagues:

“feel completely cast adrift by CCHQ/whips/the parliamentary party and left to fend for themselves”. 

He added: “At what stage do you think you [the party] might inform us that another media s***storm is coming? We didn’t create this mess, the clever dicks at CCHQ did, and I don’t see their professional reputations being trashed in the media much.” 

“The initial cock-ups, ‘strategy’ and ineptitude with regard to this issue that has so negatively impacted our: lives, standing in our communities, standing amongst colleagues, families and our regard for particular parts of the party centrally, and were all of CCHQ’s making … need to stop. 

“We are the ones who are now [and since the beginning as individuals have been] in the media spotlight and it might have been a little more reassuring and collegiate if the powers that be in our party perhaps tried to be a little bit more supportive and less interested in covering their own backsides.” 

A Conservative source said the party did not hold a copy of the Electoral Commission report as McCartney alleged.

Electoral Commission passes file on Northampton South to police

Last November I blogged about David Mackintosh, the Conservative MP for Northampton South.

That post quoted a BBC News report:

A Conservative MP's local party was given undeclared payments linked to a businessman involved in a stalled stadium development, it has emerged. 

David Mackintosh's party received a £6,195 payment for tickets from Howard Grossman, the director of a company overseeing work at Northampton Town FC. 

Mr Mackintosh was leader of the borough council when it approved a £10.25m loan for the plans. Millions of pounds of the money is currently unaccounted for. 

He declined to comment on the payments. 

Three individuals with links to Mr Grossman also paid £10,000 into Mr Mackintosh's general election fighting fund, a BBC investigation found. 

The payment to Mr Mackintosh's party from Mr Grossman and one of the donations for £10,000 were not declared to the Electoral Commission.

I went on to say "I suspect this is a story to watch," whereupon it disappeared from the media.

Until this week.

A story on the Northampton Chronicle & Echo website today quotes a spokeswoman for Northamptonshire Police:

“Following an initial investigation into election fund donations made in the Northampton South constituency, the Electoral Commission has passed the information to Northamptonshire Police to continue the investigation. 

“The information provided is currently being assessed by specialist investigators alongside thousands of documents obtained in the far-reaching and independent investigation into the lending of £10.25 million to Northampton Town Football Club.”

The paper also reports that David Mackintosh has said on a number of occasons that he welcomes the inquiry into the Sixfields loan and has never considered any of the donations to have come from anyone other than the stated donors.

Meanwhile a new story on BBC News makes things more complicated still:

An MP has accused his former council colleagues of a cover up in a row over a missing £10.25m loan. Northampton Borough Council gave the cash to Northampton Town FC in 2013 to redevelop its Sixfields stadium. 

David Mackintosh MP, who was council leader at the time, said the authority had "wrongly implied" he did not inform colleagues when a whistleblower raised concerns with him about the money. 

The council said it was working with police and had initiated two reviews. 

In June, it emerged Conservative MP Mr Mackintosh had been alerted by a whistleblower to concerns about the money in March 2015, but the council said it had no record that he had passed this on to them. 

He said this was incorrect and that the emails were "immediately passed to senior officers".

I will again risk the observation that this is a story to watch.

Latest on alleged Tory overspending at the 2015 general election

Michael Crick's latest report was broadcast on Friday.

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Electoral Commission takes Tories to High Court over election spending scandal

From the Mirror website today:

The Electoral Commission are taking the Tories to the High Court to force them to reveal documents detailing the spending on Battle Buses ahead of the 2015 general election. 

The Commission have already asked the Tories twice for the documents, but they have only provided "limited" disclosure. 

Political parties have a legal obligation to provide full spending disclosures to the Commission on request.

Later...

Tory Party yields up Election expenses documents only after Electoral Ciommission said they were asking High Courst to force their release

— Jon Snow (@jonsnowC4) May 12, 2016

Torbay Lib Dems raise questions over Alison Hernandez

From the Herald Express:

Torbay Lib Dems have lodged a question at Wednesday's full council meeting over the conduct of the new Devon and Cornwall Police Commissioner - former Torbay councillor - Alison Hernandez ...

Lib Dem leader Steve Darling wants to ask Conservative councillor Robert Excell: 

"As Torbay Councils representative on the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, do you think it is right that Alison Hernandez remains in post whilst being investigated by the police for criminal offences, while a serving officer in the police would be suspended during such an investigation?"

However, the paper said the Lib Dems have been told that the question arrived too late to be considered for today's meeting.

You can watch Alison Hernandez's encounter with Michael Crick above.

Andrew Neil makes Grant Shapps squirm on Conservative election expenses

"You knew nothing about this?" asks @afneil about Tory election spending claims

"No" says @grantshapps #bbcdp https://t.co/1yXp8VOYkC

— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) May 4, 2016

From today's Daily Politics.

Latest Michael Crick report on 2015 Conservative elections expenses

Note that the Conservative police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall was the party's election agent in one of the seats now under scrutiny.

Which could prove embarrassing for all concerned if she wins on Thursday.

Note too her reluctance to answer questions on the matter.

You can find earlier Michael Crick reports on this blog.

Electoral Commission asks for more time to consider Conservative election expenses

From the Channel 4 News website today:

The elections watchdog has asked for more time to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Tory election spending, as a summit is called to consider the evidence revealed by Channel 4 News. 

Following months of investigations by Channel 4 News, the Electoral Commission has requested an extension to the time limit available to pursue possible criminal prosecutions regarding Conservative Party campaign spending returns. 

Bob Posner, Director of Party and Election Finance & Legal Counsel at the Electoral Commission said, “The police and the CPS both have the power to apply to the Courts to extend the time limit on bringing criminal prosecutions for electoral offences to allow for full investigations to take place. We have requested that they consider doing this.” 

Representatives of the Electoral Commission and the Crown Prosecution Service will hold also hold a summit with a number of police forces to discuss the Conservative Party’s election expenses next week.

Meanwhile the Cornish Guardian reports:

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesman said that following complaints from "a small number" of members of the public, officers had launched an inquiry into allegations that Mr Mann's declared election expenses did not portray an accurate picture of his spending. 

Mr Mann has vigorously denied any wrong-doing but has conceded that he did not know details of how some of the Conservative Party campaigning in his constituency had been accounted for. 

The national party repeatedly sent campaigners to North Cornwall in a touring "Battle Bus." 

At issue is whether the travel and accommodation expenses for those campaigners should have been declared locally, or as part of a national campaign spend

If the Electoral Commission, as it should, is taking this affair seriously, there is much more chance of it coming to something substantial than there would be if it were left to isolated local campaigners.

Michael Crick and Andrew Neil on Conservative election expenses

"Something has to be done by the beginning of June" @MichaelLCrick tells @afneil on possible #battlebus prosecutions https://t.co/qmwyu9R6Kz

— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) April 21, 2016

Following the new revelations on Channel 4 News last night, Michael Crick appeared on today's Daily Politics.

Undeclared Conservative spending in Liberal Democrat seats

This Michael Crick report, giving the latest revelations in the growing scandal over Conservative spending at the last election, was broadcast by Channel 4 News earlier this evening.

Read more on the Channel 4 website.

Channel 4 News report on Conservative spending in by-elections

This is the report from Michael Crick shown at the start of this evening's Channel 4 News.