19 police forces have or want a legal extension to investigate Tory election expenses

This post started life with a list of the 12 police forces at the time seeking a legal extension to the time limits under election law for investigating Conservative election expenses from the 2015 general election. It has been updated as the list has grown to 17 police forces either seeking such an extension or having secured one.

To which should also now be added Sussex Police and Essex Police.

All of which makes it rather surprising that when political pundits speculate about the future – such as Jeremy Corbyn’s odds of being Labour leader for the 2020 general election – they are, so far, almost never mentioning the possibility of legal action resulting in the Tories losing their Parliamentary majority.

Of the MPs being investigated by the police, 15 have now been named along with one Labour MP. It is likely there are several more Conservatives also under investigation as detailed in that list of 15 names so far.

Note: The police have decided not to proceed with investigations into two Liberal Democrat MPs: Adrian Sanders and Tessa Munt.

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