Some 24 candidates are accused of failing to declare funds spent on the Conservatives\u2019 \u201cRoadTrip 2015<\/em>,\u201d a bus which transported campaigners to marginal seats in the lead-up to the election and which has been widely credited as helping MPs win their seats.<\/p>\n The Daily Mirror investigation alleges MPs did not declare spending on the bus, along with the associated costs of food and hotel accommodation.<\/p>\n Read more<\/p>\n Had the MPs declared the funding, they would have likely exceeded the spending limit on election campaigns, a cap aimed at making sure there is a level political playing field.<\/p>\n Overspending or \u201cmaking a false declaration as to election expenses<\/em>\u201d are both criminal offences.<\/p>\n If the allegations prove correct, the Conservative MPs could face prosecution.<\/p>\n However, the party denies any wrongdoing. It says the bus was taken into account in the national Conservative budget, not the local ones.<\/p>\n \u201cCCHQ [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] campaigned across the country for the return of a Conservative government. Such campaigning would be part of the national return, not local return,<\/em>\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The road trip was hailed by senior Tories, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who told the scheme\u2019s organizer: \u201cWe quite simply could not have done it without you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The revelations come as the Conservative Party candidate for London Mayor, Zac Goldsmith, faces a parliamentary probe for failing to declare payments from donors to his campaign.<\/p>\n A report by the Independent suggests the millionaire failed to declare \u00a3120,000 in donations from rich friends on the Register of Members Interests, which documents monetary gifts made to politicians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Via RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dozens of Conservative Party MPs broke the law during local campaigns to win seats in the 2015 general election, which saw a Tory majority seize power, a new investigation alleges. Some 24 candidates are accused of failing to declare funds spent on the Conservatives\u2019 \u201cRoadTrip 2015,\u201d a bus which transported campaigners to marginal seats in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-235070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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