THE leader of the Liberal Democrats has dismissed a probe into his party's spending at the last Holyrood election as someone “making mischief”.
Vince Cable said the complaint about irregularities was the result of somebody “playing games” – insisting it was “not a real issue”.
The Electoral Commission is examining whether the party filed an accurate report of its spending during the 2016 campaign, with a focus on the key marginal seat of Edinburgh Western.
Last year, the UK Liberal Democrats were fined £20,000 for failing to declare hundreds of payments during the 2015 General Election.
Mr Cable said he would be “amazed” if any wrongdoing was discovered, adding: “Somebody is clearly making mischief, because the police looked at this and they found nothing to pursue.
“Our people are absolutely confident they’ve followed the rules very carefully and there isn’t an issue.”
The latest inquiry was launched earlier this month after a member of the public raised concerns about Lib Dem spending in the Edinburgh Western seat and Lothians region.
Previously a safe seat for the party, Edinburgh Western was won by the SNP in 2011, before an intense campaign saw it return to the Lib Dems in 2016.
But the way the party divided its spending during the election battle is now the subject of intense scrutiny.
Scottish Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton, who won the seat, was the subject of a 13-month police investigation amid claims he broke electoral law. The case was later dropped.
Mr Cable was visiting Edinburgh to warn of the threat posed to Scottish businesses by Brexit.
He called on the SNP to “get off the fence” and back measures to keep the whole of the UK in the European Union.
An SNP spokesperson said: “The fact of the matter is that Alex Cole-Hamilton submitted an expenses return declaring some expenses were national Lib Dem expenses – but these are missing from the Lib Dem expenditure return.
“Either Alex Cole-Hamilton wrongly declared that these expenses were party expenses or the Lib Dems have wrongly claimed that their return is correct.
“Something stinks about the way the Lib Dems go about election spending. With thousands of pounds of fines under their belt, it’s about time they cleaned up their act.”
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