Labour calls for investigation into Tory spending in Hartlepool

Labour’s Deputy Leader has written to the Electoral Commission calling on it to launch an investigation into the Conservative Party’s spending in the Hartlepool by-election.

It has recently been reported that the Conservative Party candidate’s spending returns stated ‘Nil’ for spending on transport, despite it being known that the Prime Minister used his taxpayer-funded government private plane to fly to Hartlepool for a by-election campaign visit.

Electoral Commission guidance states that the cost of transport that is paid for or reimbursed by a political party or third party should be included in spending returns. Transport costs include the cost of transporting volunteers, party members, staff members or other campaigners around the electoral area or to and from the electoral area where they are undertaking campaigning on behalf of the candidate.

In her letter, Angela Rayner calls for an investigation ‘to get to the bottom of whether any wrongdoing has taken place, including any further dodgy deals involving Conservative Party donors secretly paying off or reimbursing the Conservative Party or the public purse and/or clearing the Prime Minister’s debts from billing the taxpayer’.