In response to the disclosure of a private email issued to a small number of Conservative MPs and a solicitor, Karl McCartney JP MP, Member of Parliament for the City of Lincoln, stated:
“I have made my forthright views clear privately to a number of senior representatives of the Conservative Party on behalf of my Backbench colleagues at various times since the partisan decision by the Electoral Commission to examine only Conservative Candidates’ election expenses was made. The Conservative Party advised us that the so called campaign ‘battle buses’ were, as at previous General Elections and in keeping with the practice of both the Labour Party and Liberal Democrats, a national campaign expense. This meant that they were not to be declared in our own election expenses.
“It seems odd that, even in the Electoral Commission’s reports on the Labour Party and Liberal Democrat’s conduct and national election expense return, there is no mention of any need for local candidates to declare campaign ‘battle buses’ on their own local election expense returns.
“It is unfortunate that private internal emails sent to a small number of cross-referenced recipients has somehow wended its way into the hands of the media. As ever with these matters, whoever has acted in this way seriously needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror and question their own ethics in the way they operate.”
ENDS
For further information, please contact Karl McCartney JP MP at[email protected] / 020 7219 7221.