Back in May, Guido wrote on how the Tories had reported then-West Yorkshire Mayoral candidate Tracy Brabin to the police for handing out brownies on the campaign trail – and thereby breaking electoral law by “treating” potential voters. At the time, Brabin claimed she only gave the brownies to staffers, which always seemed a bit suspicious given they had “VOTE LABOUR” printed on the box…

Now it seems Brabin might be in even more trouble. Guido’s taken a look through her declaration of electoral expenses, and not only does it show that she declared nothing for her travel expenses during the whole campaign, which seems impossible, it also looks like she conveniently forgot to declare those brownies as campaign expenses in her returns.

A campaign with no transport expenses is almost impossible, so where is the declaration. Likewise for the brownies, irrespective of whether they were for staffers (or purchased by the local Labour party), they should still appear on her declaration as a benefit in kind. Instead, all that’s listed is an overall staffing figure of £1,749. In law the candidate signs off the expense return, making a false return is a serious matter and lands you in court, just ask Craig Mackinlay. No brownie points for Brabin… 

Hat-Tip: Stuart Long