Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission’s Legal Counsel, said in a statement today: ‘If parties under investigation do not comply with our requirements for the disclosure of relevant material in reasonable time and after sufficient opportunity to do so, the Commission can seek recourse through the courts.
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Nine police forces are now investigating whether election spending for candidates were not properly recorded, and the case has led to calls for the new police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall to stand aside while she is investigated over her part in the campaign.
Lincolnshire Police said it was investigating as the Conservative Party handed over evidence regarding the controversy to the Electoral Commission.
She had previously been election agent to Conservative MP for Torbay Kevin Foster, who may have benefited from the extra spending.
Devon and Cornwall Police are already investigating other alleged breaches of spending rules along with the Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Leicestershire police forces.
The party has acknowledged that some accommodation for the activists was not properly registered, but insists that the bus tour was part of the national campaign.
Communities and local government minister Greg Clark said he had “every reason to suppose” that the costs were reported in the required way.
Embattled party chairman Lord Feldman, a close ally of Prime Minister David Cameron, pledged two months ago to give a “full explanation”. “The literature only promoted the national Conservative Party”.
The authorities are looking at the apparent failure to register accommodation costs of activists bussed around the country by the Tories to help secure votes in key constituencies.
Party chiefs had not provided the details they had requested in time.
Deliberate breach of spending limits – usually around £15,000 – by individual candidates is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or even a one-year jail term.
Also caught up in the row is Alison Hernandez, who was elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Devon and Cornwall last week and who was the agent for winning Tory candidate Kevin Foster in Torbay a year ago.
The party is accused of recording the costs of activists bussed into marginal seats under the national campaign budget, rather than as part of the individual candidates’ spending limits.
The Electoral Commission has previously said such letters are “generally reportable” under national spending limits, but the final position depends on specific “facts and context”. She continues to deny any wrongdoing.
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It said the Conservative party provided “limited disclosure of material in response to the first notice issued on 18 February 2016 – nearly three months ago”.
