Angela Rayner faces election expenses probe over battlebus following ‘substantial and detailed complaint’_Nhy
The Labour battlebus used by Angela Rayner during last year’s General Election is at the centre of a police investigation into alleged expenses irregularities, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Lancashire Police are looking into a ‘substantial and detailed complaint’ about election expenses that were submitted by Labour MP Lizzi Collinge, who won the seat of Morecambe and Lunesdale.
She declared that she had spent £18,446.96 – under the allowed limit of just over £20,000.
But officers are examining claims that the cost of a visit to the constituency by Ms Rayner on the battlebus should have been included in the total.
The police are also examining a failure in other battleground seats to declare the cost of the bus, which racked up 5,000 miles during Labour’s campaign.
Failing to register all election expenses is a crime, with those found guilty facing up to a year in jail. Local spending limits vary depending on the number of voters in the constituency and whether it is a rural or urban area.
The case echoes the investigation into the Tory battlebus used in the 2015 campaign, which led to a failed prosecution of Tory MP Craig Mackinlay over the South Thanet contest against Nigel Farage.
Tory HQ had classed the huge cost of the scheme as a national expense, even though the campaigning was at a local level.
Sir Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves standing by the Labour battlebus, which is now the subject of a police probe over alleged expenses irregularities
Officers are examining claims a visit by Ms Rayner on the bus should have been declared on expenses submitted by Labour MP Lizzi Collinge
Ms Rayner speaking outside the battlebus during a visit to Doncaster in June 2024
The RoadTrip 2015 battlebus campaign was the idea of activist Mark Clarke, dubbed the ‘Tatler Tory’, who told then chairman Grant Shapps he could target key marginal seats by bussing in young activists. The trips became synonymous with tales of hard drinking, sex and partying.
The complaint about Ms Rayner’s bus centres on a visit to Morecambe and Lunesdale with other shadow ministers on June 4 last year which was reportedly not included in Ms Collinge’s return.
A Labour spokesman said: ‘The Labour Party is completely confident that all the relevant declarations have been made with regards to the battlebus by the party in the proper way, in line with the rules.
‘Ms Collinge has made all the relevant declarations with regards to her election and unless any evidence can be presented to suggest this is not the case, it would be wrong to suggest otherwise’.
Lancashire Police said: ‘We received a complaint in December about alleged irregularities in the campaign in the Morecambe and Lunesdale constituency.
‘We are in the process of assessing the information provided to confirm if any criminal offences have taken place.’
