DWP Work & Pensions MP Questioned Under Caution

A police investigation is underway and a Conservative MP has been interviewed by police over election spending.  MP Craig Mackinlay has been questioned under caution about whether Tories overspent in the 2015 South Thanet campaign against Nigel Farage. Mr Mackinlay was a former member of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and Mr Mackinlay served as deputy leader of UKIP in 1997, before joining the Conservative Party in 2005.

In 2015 Mackinlay, an accountant and tax adviser based in Ramsgate, Kent was elected as Member of Parliament for South Thanet at the general election, where he ran against UKIP leader Nigel Farage and comedian Al Murray.  Laura Sandys had represented the constituency in the House of Commons.

In July 2015, Craig Mackinlay was elected as a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

As per a Guardian article, there is said to be growing panic in the Conservative party about the scale of police probes into election spending, which could affect dozens of MPs. A separate investigation by the Electoral Commission into whether the national party broke election spending limits is also under way and expected to come to a head within weeks.

Breaking the rules around elections is a very serious matter. There can be criminal charges for MPs and their election agents, and the results can be declared void. This matter is going in front of the director of Public Prosecutions shortly it has been alleged.

Image: MP Craig Mackinlay

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Membership - Work and Pensions Committee

Frank Field was elected as Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee on Thursday 18 June 2015.

The remaining members of the Committee were formally appointed on 8 July 2015.