THERESA May’s Conservatives should not be allowed to “buy” the 2017 General Election, having successfully bought the 2015 one, Alex Salmond has said after raising the police’s probe into Tory election expenses in the Commons.
A report on Channel 4 News said that at least 30 Tory MPs and agents had been subject to reports to the Crown Prosecution Service in England over allegations of breaking electoral law. It has also been suggested the prosecution authorities now have between May 20 and early June to report on the matter.
Referring to those under investigation, Mr Salmond told MPs in a Point of Order: “Given that these include many members of this House and all of the implications that could have for reporting of any such decision in terms of coverage or the position of candidates during an election campaign and given, of course, that it would be a scandal of enormous proportions if any attempt had been made to influence the timing of any such reports, provision has surely been made as to how to cope with such an eventuality if it occurs during an election campaign.”
The former First Minister and MP for Gordon added: “Given that the Prime Minister has decided to reappoint all of the campaign team, who have already been fined by the election commission, responsible for that bourach, we cannot get ourselves into a position of that campaign team, up to and including Lynton Crosby, having successfully bought one election are allowed to buy another.”
John Bercow, the Speaker, said: “The rules governing the conduct of elections are not a matter for the Chair…I have no intention of being drawn into this matter, which would be quite improper.
“What the police and CPS do and when is a matter for them. Members with views on these matters will and can express views. I will not on this matter.”
On a subsequent Point of Order, Labour’s Dennis Skinner said he had failed to get a response on the election expenses issues from either the Prime Minister or Elizabeth Truss, the Justice Secretary.
“The election should not have been called,” declared the Bolsover MP. “She did not get a revelation on the Welsh hills; she called a snap election to try and beat the CPS. That’s what this election is all about.”
Mr Bercow, pointing out how the police and the CPS had a responsibility in such matters, added: “My responsibility is most certainly to hear colleagues and to err on the side of latitude in hearing colleagues who want to raise points of order and I have done that very fairly. I have never ducked anything that is might responsibility but I know that which is not.”
In March, the Conservative Party was fined a record £70,000 for breaking election expenses rules in the 2015 campaign.
The party insisted its failure to report six figure sums it had spent on trying to win three by-elections and the General Election was an "administrative error".
The Electoral Commission made clear there was a "realistic prospect" the money had given the party an advantage. Among the local campaigns criticised in its report was the successful one run by the Conservatives in South Thanet to see off a challenge by then UKIP leader Nigel Farage.
The elections watchdog found the Tory Party also failed to correctly report all expenditure on a national battlebus campaign, which helped David Cameron win a majority in 2015.
It referred the matter to Scotland Yard, which began an investigation to see if the reporting omissions were deliberate.
Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, has dismissed any suggestion the prospect of a series of by-elections was the reason behind Mrs May’s decision to call a snap election.
“It has been called for all the reasons the Prime Minister has set out, which is that it is in our national interest to have a strong government with a strong majority able to go in and have that negotiation with the EU and beyond,” she told Channel 4 News.
Asked whether or not any MP charged in connection with the election expenses claims, should step aside, Ms Rudd replied: “We’re not trying to get in the way at all of the proper due process of law, that must go ahead, but we believe that the Conservatives and the MPs in question and the agents have behaved properly.
“If there are any conclusions to the contrary, we will pay the fines, whatever is appropriate. But at the moment, what we’ve been focusing on today, is that we want to have this general election and we’re making the case for it.
“The impact on the prosecutions, whether they make them or not from the CPS, is not impacted by this”, she added.
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