An election watchdog has announced it is to investigate claims over the Conservative party’s election expenses in the South Thanet constituency.

The Electoral Commission has announced it has opened an investigation into allegations regarding the Conservative Party spending returns.

The allegations were first made by Channel 4 News, which queried whether expenses claims made by the party for two hotels were legitimate.

If any of the claims are upheld, the commission has powers to issue fines of up to £20,000.

The Commission’s announcement follows Kent Police’s decision not to pursue an investigation into allegations regarding the Conservative Party candidate spending return in the South Thanet constituency in last year’s election, won by Craig Mackinlay.

The commission investigation will focus on whether the Conservative Party met their reporting obligations under the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act (PPERA) 2000.

In particular, the commission says it will examine two areas:

The first is whether the spending reported by the party in its spending returns in relation to the Royal Harbour Hotel, Ramsgate, was not national campaign spending and therefore should not have been included in the party’s return.

The second is whether spending on the Premier Inn Margate was national campaign spending and therefore should have been included in the party’s campaign spending return.

The commission said it could not consider individual candidate spending but did have the authority to consider national spending by parties.

It said it had met Kent Police who had informed it that at this time, they were not actively pursuing an investigation into allegations regarding candidate spending in the South Thanet constituency.

In its statement, the Commission said: “The priority of the Electoral Commission is to conduct a fair and thorough investigation and the time taken to complete an investigation varies on a case-by-case basis.

"Once the investigation is complete, the Commission will be able to decide whether any breaches have occurred and if so what further action, if any, may be appropriate.

"The Commission’s sanctioning powers are limited to a civil penalty of up to £20,000.”

The Conservative party has said that its expenses returns complied with the rules.