Police pass Mary Robinson election file to prosecutors

by Lib Dem Team on 21 March, 2017

Mary Robinson – file passed to prosecutors

The Manchester Evening News is reporting that Police have investigated Cheadle’s Conservative MP Mary Robinson over breaking election law and have now passed the file to prosecutors.
The MEN reports:

A probe into 2015 election expenses – which has seen police hand files to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – involves three Greater Manchester MPs, the M.E.N. has learned.

Detectives have been investigating whether Conservative MPs breached strict spending limits at the last General Election.

Earlier this week, it was revealed a file had been handed to the CPS following controversy over spending on a ‘battle bus’ tour of marginal constituencies.

Complaints have been made that the costs – of the buses to transport activists and put them up in hotels – should have been recorded as counting towards individual candidates’ spending limits, rather than to the Conservatives’ national expenses return.

Mrs Robinson has not responded to the M.E.N’s request for comment.

   24 Comments

24 Responses

  1. John Hartley says:

    Have to say that I heard so little from the Tories at the last election that I’d be surprised if they’d spent enough to breach the limits. Maybe battlebuses come very pricy.

  2. Lib Dem Team says:

    Prior to the election they spent a lot of money doing phone surveys. People who they identified as possibly voting for them got huge amounts of money spent on them. People like you wouldn’t have seen much at all!

  3. John Hartley says:

    Ah, that may make sense. We had a number of phone calls from folk conducting surveys, obviously for the Tories . I can be somewhat blunt (but polite) about my dislike of the Tory party and its policies – to the extent that one guy even remembered phoning me a few days before and recalled I gave the same answers.

  4. Bruce says:

    It does seem like a huge mess this is and it stems from Tory central office. Personally I only saw her once when she called at the door but there was certainly more ‘presence’ in the area from the LibDems that all the other parties combined.

    Let us face it Iain – your party has undermined her from day one and take obvious glee from such reports.

    Still the Tory party cannot be excused and must accept the blame.

    • Lib Dem Team says:

      Bruce – you seem to be suggesting that we should let the Tories off the hook and not hold them to account. I disagree.

      • Bruce says:

        Iain – when did you ever hold Mark Hunter to account?

        You obviously detest the Tories so why did you ever join them in coalition? Could never understand that.

  5. Bruce says:

    Iain – please remember what Mark Hunter did when he was in office – he was ordered to pay back £500 after wrongly using public cash to promote his party.

    • Lib Dem Team says:

      There was never any suggestion at all that Mark had broken the law, nor that he had deliberately broken any rules. But you raise a good point – it’s important that all politicians are accountable for their actions and if Mary Robinson has broken the law, she should be fully accountable just like anyone else.

  6. Alan says:

    It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Tories bought the last election. It’s about time we gave more credence to state funding only for elections

  7. Mark says:

    Lets not forget that infamous bar graph that was put on your leaflet during the build up to the election showing an exaggerated difference between the lib dems and labour. Don t get me wrong your right about the cloaked campaigning the tories did , I remember them knocking on my door but if you chaps wanna throw rocks make sure your not living in a glass house. Hopefully they will call a by election as Mary Robinson has been a friend to this community as much as the hangmans noose is to the condemned man

  8. Roy says:

    What a PATHETIC waste of Police Time and Resources, when last week a house on Gatley Road was broken into goods were taken and a great deal of damage was done, this occurred within months of a previous break in only 6 doors away, when we have enough Police resources to stop these real crimes we can then maybe investigate and waste money on none crimes.
    Please protect persons and property before wasting time and money on Political agendas

    • John Hartley says:

      Burglary rates have been rapidly declining over the past 20 years.

      Figures for 2015 being 29% lower than 2004/5 and 69% lower than 1995. (Source: Office of National Statistics).

  9. Roy says:

    John
    They may be declining elsewhere but they are certainly rising in the Cheadle area and I would like to see some proactive Policing to address Crime in our area .

  10. John Arnold says:

    This is all sour grapes by the lib Dems to throw unsubstantiated accusations at a more successful party that successfully represents the voting public as proved in the last election, lib dems please stop throwing muck and seriously concentrate on improving your own party and policy but i doubt if this will appear improve to succeed don’t stir to destroy

  11. Les Leckie says:

    I don’t see much point in police resources being used to investigate election fraud. It’s not as if it’s going to result in any MP losing their seat. It’s not as if discovery of fraud in enough constituencies would force a new election. They aren’t even prevented from fighting a seat where previous election fraud has been identified. Now, if someone risked a jail sentence?

  12. Tony Kaye says:

    I agree with the correspondents above who feel that this should not be discussed on this website. I think that it is unpleasant for mud slinging to be going on publicly. I am sure that Mary Robinson would not stoop so low, Iain. If anything took place inappropriate it was probably Conservative Central Office, rather than local action. Whilst I may be wrong or naive about it, I do not think this type of comment in the public domain is appropriate. This web forum is great for informing us publically of Local council activity, and local Lib Dem activity, and I appreciate the communications, and the openness of it. However, I do not appreciate personal attacks or trying to win over public opinion in this way. I don’t think it shows the Lib Dems in a good light. Sorry but I felt it necessary to voice my opinion – and it is irrelevant who I choose to vote for, I would feel just the same.

  13. Arthur says:

    Of course the present parliamentary incumbent’s practices and policies should be discussed on this website and, indeed, on her own. However, Ms Robinson hasn’t even had the grace to put up the boilerplate Tory response to this offence to be seen on most of the other culprits’ pages.

    It is by their actions – or inactions in the case of the Cheadle Tory candidate – that you know them. Bringing other crimes in to the discussion, as serious as they may be, is a distraction from the point under discussion, the integrity and efficacy of our current MP, a false dilemma if you like.

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