Belter of a story breaking over on the Jewish Chronicle – they’ve got hold of an audit into the conduct of Labour candidate and Jewish Labour Movement chair Jeremy Newmark, accusing him of deceiving the Jewish Leadership Council charity out of tens of thousands of pounds. The JC says the report alleges misuse of funds, misleading charities about the cost of projects and claiming inappropriate expenses, including claims that Newmark:

• Put holidays and VIP transport for himself, his wife and their children on expenses
• Withdrew thousands of pounds of unaccounted for cash on JLC credit and debit cards while failing to provide receipts
• Paid his wife’s events consultancy firm more than £36,000
• Leased a new BMW worth £46,000, to which he fixed his own personal number plate

Newmark denies the allegations.

Perhaps even more damaging are the allegations of a cover-up. The paper claims the JLC’s trustees, including Tory chief executive Mick Davies, kept Newmark’s alleged conduct secret when they found out. JC Editor Stephen Pollard writes:

“The trustees of the JLC took it upon themselves to bury all the evidence, going out of their way to keep it secret and ensure that the community was not allowed to know the truth about one of its most prominent figures.”

Looks pretty bad…