An election agent for the Tories faced London’s first ‘Nightingale Court’ yesterday over alleged falsified candidate nomination forms in the 2018 local elections. Diana Danescu, who was working as an agent for 29 Conservative candidates in the Hackney Council elections, allegedly illegally obtained signatures for candidate nomination papers by pretending to be a representative from the Labour Party, the Green Party, and the Council itself. It must be hard finding Tories in Hackney, though this isn’t the solution…

Danescu, who was employed by CCHQ as a campaign manager, denies sixteen counts of causing or permitting a false signature to be included in a nomination form. The trial continues…

UPDATE 16/10/2020: Dianescu has been found guilty of 16 offences of causing or permitting a false signature to be included on a nomination form under the Representation of the People Act 1983; and given a six-month suspended sentence with 200 hours of community service.