The Conservatives are facing a possible inquiry by the electoral authorities after it was claimed the party had overspent by thousands of pounds in three separate byelections.

Channel 4 News reported on Monday that it has obtained hundreds of pages of receipts which show undeclared expenditure in 2014.

The documents, its reporter Michael Crick said, appear to reveal a pattern of undisclosed spending and link directly to Conservative HQ and senior figures within the party.

Campaign spending in each byelection is subject to a legal limit of £100,000 to ensure fairness, so contests are not skewed in favour of richer political parties.

The party would appear to have flouted spending limits in all three byelections in Newark, Clacton, and Rochester & Strood during 2014, the programme claimed. All three byelections were seen as crucial battles to halt the then-growing popularity of Ukip, which was increasingly threatening to steal support from the Tories.

Douglas Carswell, the Ukip MP who won the byelection in Clacton, said last night he would ask the Electoral Commission if they have the powers to investigate, and if they do he would want them to take it further.

“It’s shocking ... It’s simply intolerable. You have to have a law to make sure you don’t have unfair advantage,” he told the programme.

“We need to look at whether Electoral Commission should have the right powers ... I will certainly be raising it (with them).”

In a statement, a party spokesperson said: “All byelection spending has been correctly recorded in accordance with the law.”

Channel 4 News claimed to have obtained copies of receipts for six hotels across the three byelection areas showing that large numbers of Conservative campaign workers stayed there, including senior party figures.



In all, the hotel bills show 1,401 nights of accommodation, with the total cost of rooms, food and additional spending amounting to £113,030.63 across the three campaigns, it was claimed.

Of this, 1,182 nights with costs of £94,112.19 fell within strict campaigning time limits, known as regulated periods, where spending must be declared by law, the programme said.

This, the programme claimed, includes £56,866.75 undeclared hotel bills in Rochester, which would have taken them £53,659.83 over the £100,000 spending limit; £26,786.14 in Clacton, which would take them £10,835.36 over the limit; and £10,459.30 in Newark, which would mean a £6,650.28 overspend.

In each of the three byelection campaigns, hotels were booked for Conservative campaign workers – one upmarket for senior staff and one budget Premier Inn for more junior campaign members, it was alleged.



The programme named a number of Conservative party officials who booked rooms or stayed at the hotels. Receipts for the all of the six hotels do not appear to have been declared in the material submitted to the Electoral Commission.

If staff were working on the byelection campaigns then the associated costs, including all hotel stays and salaries, should have been declared.

Any party expenditure for campaigning during the regulated period should be declared to returning officers by law.