LIBDEM leader Vince Cable has said his party has “nothing to apologise for” after he was pressed about his party’s election spending in Scotland.
Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine became the second politician in the party to face queries over campaign expenses in two days, following questions levelled at deputy party leader Jo Swinson.
Reports have claimed both dropped thousands from their election spending returns as the cash was allocated to national rather than local spending, bringing them in under legal caps on expenditure.
Speaking in Edinburgh, Cable said: “My understanding is it’s absolutely completely above reproach, that there’s absolutely no question of any impropriety and what’s happened is it’s a complex process apportioning costs, but the party has followed advice.
“There’s no question of anything wrong whatsoever, nothing to apologise for.
“As far as I’m aware no official complaints have been made and from what I understand there’s no basis for making them.”
He claimed the election spending issue affecting his party also impacted on all other political parties.
It was reported yesterday Jardine, a former journalist, allocated a third of her election material bill to national spending, because it promoted the LibDems rather than her specifically as the local candidate. It means she would have been £1350 over the legal spending cap if this £3000 had been counted towards her constituency campaign costs, according to a report.
Jardine told BBC Radio Scotland: “Like every other candidate I think it’s important that we follow the advice and the rules of the Electoral Commission. The rules are there for a reason and I am confident that we have followed that advice, at all times.There was money which was allocated as having been spent on the national campaign, but that’s because it was spent on a national campaign.”
Edinburgh West was one of the toughest electoral battles in the election and a specific target for the Lib Dems.The party had held on to the seat since 1997, but it was won by the SNP’s Michelle Thomson in 2015 by 3,120 votes.
East Dunbartonshire MP Swinson has also faced questions after thousands of pounds were omitted from her expenses as they were attributed to national spending and undelivered campaign materials.
Official declaration indicates her spending was £210 under the limit of £14,619, it reported on Thursday.She said 93,000 leaflets and other material bought by the party at a cost of £2,700 were never used so could be omitted from the total, as could £4,040 which went on national spending promoting the party. Police Scotland have not received any complaints relating to either MP.
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