THERESA May has backed the Conservative candidate facing charges over his 2015 General Election expenses, insisting he is “innocent until proven guilty and he remains our candidate".
Craig Mackinlay, who defeated Ukip's Nigel Farage in South Thanet, Kent, has been charged by the Crown Prosecution Service with offences under the 1983 Representation of the People Act alongside election agent Nathan Gray, 28, and party activist Marion Little, 62. They could be tried at a Crown Court. If found guilty, the maximum sentence is one year in prison or a fine.
But in a statement posted on his Facebook page, Mr Mackinlay, 50, insisted he was innocent of any wrong-doing and condemned the "shocking" decision to prosecute.
"Our justice system is underpinned by the presumption of innocence and I am confident that I will be acquitted as I have done nothing wrong and acted honestly and properly whilst a candidate in 2015, and as all candidates do, acted upon advice throughout," he said.
"Clearly, this is a shocking decision by the CPS, given that I've done nothing wrong and I am confident that this will be made very clear as the matter progresses," he added.
Earlier, the Prime Minister made clear the Conservative party “continues to believe that these allegations are unfounded. Craig Mackinlay is innocent until proven guilty and he remains our candidate."
Mr Mackinlay said he was "disappointed" at the way the case had been handled by the CPS and Kent Police and questioned the timing of the announcement just days before the General Election on June 8.
He received support from both local Conservative activists - who said they would continue to campaign for him - and the party's national headquarters which said it believed the charges against all three accused were unfounded.
"We believe that they have done nothing wrong, and we are confident that this will be proven as the matter progresses," a Conservative spokesman said.
South Thanet Conservative Association said it was "totally shocked" at the decision to press charges.
"As an association we worked with Craig throughout the campaign and are convinced that there are no grounds for these charges at all and that he will be completely exonerated in due course. He continues to have our total support," it said in a statement.
However, Mr Farage, who was beaten into second place by Mackinlay in 2015 by a margin of 2,812 votes, welcomed the CPS announcement.
The former Ukip leader predicted that the contest in the current election in South Thanet - where Mackinlay is again standing as the Conservative candidate - would now become a "straight fight" between Ukip and Labour.
"Once again it is bad judgment from Theresa May. Why on earth would you allow someone to go ahead as General Election candidate when this cloud was clearly hanging over him? There will be questions," he said.
The CPS said the decision to press charges came after prosecutors received a file of evidence from Kent Police in April concerning allegations relating to Conservative Party expenditure during the 2015 election campaign.
"We then asked for additional inquiries to be made in advance of the June 11 statutory time limit by when any charges needed to be authorised," it said.
"Those inquiries have now been completed and we have considered the evidence in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
"We have concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to authorise charges against three people," it added.
Last month, the CPS said it had considered files from 14 other police forces but had decided not to bring charges against any other Conservative MPs or officials.
It said that while campaign spending returns may have been inaccurate there was insufficient evidence to prove that any candidate or agent acted dishonestly.
The investigations centred on claims that expenses relating to busloads of Conservative activists sent to key seats were wrongly reported as part of the party's national spending rather than in the candidates' local returns.
Meantime, Jeremy Corbyn suggested the Tories' decision to comment on the case could be seen as "interference" in an independent process.
The Labour leader said: "It is a very bad road when democratically elected politicians start offering a running commentary on independent judicial processes. We have to have total separation of political and judicial powers in this country.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel