Majority of Tory MPs will not face election expenses charges, says CPS

Tory MPs being investigated over breaches of expenses rules during the 2015 general election campaign will not face criminal charges, it was announced today.

One case, relating to successful Tory candidate Craig Mackinlay in Thanet South, remains under consideration.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) was looking into allegations that up to 20 Tory MPs broke local spending limits over the use of the party's campaign "battle bus", which took activists to key marginal seats.

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The Conservatives reported thousands of pounds spent on the bus as national spending, when it was actually used to re-elect specific MPs.

Nick Vamos, head of special crime at the CPS, said: "By omitting any battle bus costs, the returns may have been inaccurate.

"However, it is clear agents were told by Conservative Party headquarters that the costs were part of the national campaign and it would not be possible to prove any agent acted knowingly or dishonestly.

"Therefore we have concluded it is not in the public interest to charge anyone referred to us with this offence."

In March, the Tories were fined a record £70,000 by the Electoral Commission for numerous failures in reporting its expenses.

At the time, Sir John Holmes, the commission's chairman, said the party's failure to follow the rules "undermined voters' confidence in our democratic processes" and that there was a risk that political parties were seeing such fines as "a cost of doing business".

Tory chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin welcomed the CPS's decision. "These were politically motivated and unfounded complaints that have wasted police time," he said.

"These Conservative candidates did nothing wrong," he added.

However, political commentators have questioned his statement.

Karl McCartney, the Tory MP for Lincoln who was under investigation, called for Electoral Commission chief executive Claire Bassett and her senior management team to resign.

If they don't, he added, Tory MPs would urge the government "to abolish this incompetent organisation".

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the investigation had left "a cloud hanging over British politics".

He added: "The observation I would make of the Conservative Party is it appears to have stayed on the right side of the law by the letter of it, but has driven a battle bus and horses right the way through the spirit of it."