THE Tories were served notice yesterday that they are being taken to court over claims they broke general election law by failing to declare all their campaign spending.

The Electoral Commission has applied to the High Court for an order that would force the Conservative Party to hand over documents crucial to its investigation into the scandal.

It is believed to be the first time that Britain’s election watchdog has begun legal action against a political party — and it came on the first day of an international anti-corruption summit in London hosted by PM David Cameron.

This unprecedented step was taken after the Tories failed to comply with two requests by the commission for documents.

It said the Tories had given “limited” information in response to its first request in February and did not respond at all to a second request in March — despite being given an extension.

“If parties under investigation do not comply with our requirements for the disclosure of relevant material in reasonable time and after sufficient opportunity to do so, the commission can seek recourse through the courts,” said Electoral Commission legal counsel and director of party and election finance Bob Posner.

“We are today asking the court to require the party to fully disclose the documents and information we regard as necessary to effectively progress our investigation into the party’s campaign spending returns.”

The Prime Minister was caused further embarrassment by news that a Tory police and crime commissioner could face an investigation about whether she was involved in the scandal.

Devon and Cornwall PPC Alison Hernandez was referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission by her own office a week after being elected.
She had previously been election agent to Conservative MP for Torbay Kevin Foster, who may have benefited from the extra spending.

Both actions are connected to evidence that the Tories failed to declare tens of thousands of pounds of spending that helped them win last May’s general election.

Nine police forces have launched fraud investigations into the undeclared sums.

The expenses were connected to the Battle Bus 2015 campaign run by the now infamous Tory activist Mark Clarke, who was expelled from the party over bullying allegations.

Young Conservatives drove across the country to campaign in 29 target seats.

An investigation by Channel 4 revealed that £38,000 worth of accommodation expenses were never registered with the Electoral Commission.

The party has acknowledged that some accommodation for the activists was not properly registered, but insists that the bus tour was part of the national campaign.

But evidence suggests the tour was targeted at local campaigning. Had the spending been properly registered it would have smashed constituency spending limits.

A Conservative Party spokeswoman said: “We advised the Electoral Commission on April 29 that we would comply with their notices by 1pm today — and we will do so.

“There was no need for them to make this application to the High Court.”

But the commission said that the extended deadline to comply with the two orders for separate information had expired on Monday.

lukejames@peoples-press.com