UK Conservative Party fined £70k but 'mistake' is not a crime says CPS

Conservation battlebus. Photo: Chester Chronicle

In 2015, during former Prime Minister David Cameron's election campaign, it was found by the Electoral Commission that the Conservative Party had assigned expenses used by local agents to national funds. Under electoral rules, a party can only use money assigned to local party coffers- this is money raised from supporters and donors to the party. 

But on this occasion, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the conservation party officials allegedly used £275,000 from the national fund - some of that money was used for the party's battlebuses - buses used to campaign. Furthermore, £14,000  was used to pay for a nights stay in a hotel for the party's supporters and agents.

Today, the CPS has announced that there are no charges to be brought against the Conservative Party election spending investigation.

This leaves a couple of burning questions: Does this mean there was no wrong doing by the Conservative Party or that the mistake has been waived? If the Party was told to pay a fine, isn't there a presumption that there was wrong doing?

What do you think? Please, leave your comments.

"Iron Lady" - Margaret Thatcher dies of stroke aged 87

Baroness Thatcher October 13, 1925 - April 08 2013

Baroness Thatcher, Britain's first and only female Prime Minister and the country's greatest post-war leader, Margaret Thatcher has died. She died peacefully following a stroke at the age of 87, her family has announced.

The Great British elections: Who would you vote for?

 

BRITAIN - Local elections take place Thursday May 3 in England, Scotland and Wales and political parties are now giving their campaigns a final push. 

Referendums on creating elected mayors will take place in 10 English cities.

Meanwhile, people in Liverpool, London and Salford will choose their mayor.

Labour are looking to make gains in England and Wales after losses in 2008, while the Conservatives

UK - Tory party shrouded in 'cash for access' SCANDAL

LONDON - David Cameron has published details of dinners in Downing Street in which donors who gave more than £50,000 to the Tory party were present. In total £18 million was donated to the party by ten donors over the last few months.

 The decision is a swift U-turn on a previous insistence that the meetings were a private matter for the prime minister and his family.

Yesterday, the  Conservative Party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas resigned after being filmed by The Sunday Times apparently offering access to the prime minister, and crucially influence over policy, in return for donations of £250,000 a year. Cruddas urged reporters posing as wealth fund executives, to give more than £250,000 in return for direct face time with senior ministers.

Speaking in London on Monday afternoon, Cameron said in future the party would publish quarterly details of any meal attended by a Tory donor.

He said that since the election there had been three dinners in his Downing Street flat in which "significant donors" had been in attendance and it has since been revealed that there were 23 donors altogether.

Who came for dinner
On February 28, 2011, the prime minister ate with property millionaire donor David Rowland and his wife a regular donor, along with the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, Andrew Feldman.
On November 2, 2011 there was a dinner with Henry Angest, the chairman and chief executive of the Arbuthnot Banking Group. City trader Michael Farmer and his wife were present as was Ian Taylor, the president of the oil trader Vito.
And on February 27, 2012, Cameron had a meal in his Downing Street flat with Michael Spencer, a Tory party donor and former party treasurer, and his partner.
The prime minister also said there had been an additional post-election dinner in which included donors to the party.
The meal, held on July 14, 2010, was inside No.10 Downing Street as the prime minister's private flat was being refurbished.
"None of these dinners were fund raising dinners and none of these were paid for by the taxpayer," he said.
The donors in attendance at the meal were: Anthony Bamford from JCB, hedge fund manager Michael Hintze, Tory peer Lord John Sainsbury, Andrew Feldman, Lansdowne Partners chief executive Paul Ruddock, Mike Farmer and city financier Michael Freeman.
Telegraph Media Group chief executive Murdoch Maclennan also attended the meal although is not believed to be a donor.

There will be a "full party inquiry" into how the Conservatives raise money to fund their campaigns led by Tory peer Lord Gold. The matter has been reported to the police.
Labour leader Ed Miliband is not satisfied with an internal Tory party review and has demanded independent inquiry. He told the Commons on Monday afternoon that "inquiry into the Conservative Party, by the Conservative Party, for the Conservative Party" was not good enough.
"This scandal speaks to the conduct and character of the prime minister and government, anything short of an independent inquiry will leave stain on this government and this prime minister," he said.
Miliband also accused Cameron of being "too ashamed" to come to the Commons himself to face MPs over the row and sending Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude instead.

How it all started
A few months ago a lobbyist boasted that she could get anyone access to the prime minister and senior ministers for a fee.