Conservative MP goes to court over election expense limit breach

David Mundell MP (Conservative) is taking to the courts to apply for official relief for breaking his election expense limit during the general election.

The relief process is designed to allow people who make innocent and inconsequential mistakes to admit to their mistake and avoid prosecution. A typical example is if a candidate by mistake leaves a small bill off their expenses return. However, David Mundell’s case is slightly more complicated as although he too left a bill out of his short campaign expense return, adding it in takes him over the limit.

The Herald explains:

The Scotland Office Minister, who is in charge of election conduct north of the Border, is preparing to petition the Court of Session after filing a misleading account of how much he spent on the campaign trail earlier this year …

In July, we revealed that a bill of almost £700 was omitted from his late campaign costs and wrongly counted as pre-election spending.

If it had been included in the late campaign, it would have breached the spending cap by £466.

Given the small sum involved, particularly when set against his majority of over 4,000, it is likely that relief will be granted by the courts.