UK fines Conservative Party for failures in expenses reports

LONDON – Britain’s election commission has fined the ruling Conservative Party 70,000 pounds ($85,000) for failures in reporting election expenses — the largest fine ever levelled by the watchdog.

The fines followed an investigation of expenses from the 2015 general election and three special elections in 2014. A dozen police forces are also looking into whether laws were broken in the 2015 contest.

Commission chairman John Holmes says the failures “undermined voters’ confidence in our democratic processes,” and the size of the fine was justified.

“There is a risk that some political parties might come to view the payment of these fines as a cost of doing business,” Holmes said. “The commission therefore needs to be able to impose sanctions that are proportionate to the levels of spending now routinely handled by parties and campaigners.”

The commission said there was a “realistic prospect” that the party gained a “financial advantage” over opponents in the 2015 vote.

The fines follow reports from Channel 4 news that the Conservatives incorrectly recorded spending on bus tours that took activists to campaign in key areas. The issue was whether the cost of the tours should have been counted in the spending limits of the local candidates or the national parties.

One of the seats investigated was the race for South Thanet, where Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay narrowly defeated former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage.