2015 United Kingdom general election party spending investigation

[6][2] At constituency level, related alleged breaches of spending regulations led police to begin investigations into possible criminal conduct of between 20 and 30 Conservative Party MPs.

[5] Charges were not brought against most of those investigated, but on 9 January 2019, a Conservative Party activist, Marion Little, was found guilty on two counts relating to falsifying election expenses and given a nine-month suspended sentence and £5000 fine.

[18] The Commission found that Simon Day may not have fulfilled his obligations under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and referred him for investigation to the Metropolitan Police Service.

[1] In June 2016, the journalist David Allen Green opined that 'unless compelling evidence emerges of wrongful and dishonest intention – either on a personal level or as part of a conspiracy – then it is hard to see any charges or criminal prosecutions in respect of the allegations as they currently stand'.

[30] However, on 2 June 2017, charges were brought under the Representation of the People Act 1983 against Craig Mackinlay, who was elected Conservative MP for South Thanet in 2015, his agent Nathan Gray, and a party activist, Marion Little.

[3] The same Channel 4 investigation that identified the Conservative Party's questionable spending failed to find substantial evidence of similar problems in the Labour campaign.

In May 2016, Lancashire Constabulary announced that an investigation had been opened into Labour Party expenses following allegations that Cat Smith, MP for Lancaster and Fleetwood broke election spending laws.

[47][48] When the UK Government called the 2017 United Kingdom General Election in April 2017, there was widespread press speculation that one motivation was fear of impending prosecutions of Conservative MPs, most prominently by Scotland's First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon.

[56] In May 2019, it emerged that the government was in consequence considering introducing primary legislation so that candidates for election, and their agents, would no longer automatically be held responsible if resources were donated to the campaign (including by their own national parties).

[58][59][60] It also found that UKIP MEPs had unlawfully spent EU money on other assistance for national campaigning purposes during 2014-16 and docked their salaries to recoup the mis-spent funds.

[61][62] On 17 May 2017, the Information Commissioner's Office opened an investigation into data analytics for political purposes, whose purview included the 2015 general election, as well as possible unlawful campaigning in the 2016 EU referendum.

UK Parliamentary General Election party and candidate expenditure 2005–15. These figures are based on all candidate spending returns provided to the Commission by Returning Officers by 31 January 2016, being approximately 86.5% of all candidates who stood in the election.
UK General Election 2015 average spending by party candidates as a percentage of spending limit. These figures are based on all candidate spending returns provided to the Commission by Returning Officers by 31 January 2016, being approximately 86.5% of all candidates who stood in the election.