No criminal charges will be brought over 14 police enquiries into Conservative Party election spending in 2015, including the campaign of Kevin Foster in Torbay.
Commenting on this welcome news, Kevin Foster said, "I would like to thank the Police for thoroughly going through everything to ensure that everyone in Torbay can have confidence that the 2015 Election was a free and fair contest.
The last year has been a frustrating one given the delays in reaching this point, but I am pleased that this matter has now been brought to a conclusion and closed.
A series of other allegations on other issues were made and all of these have been proved unfounded. It is right that the Police had the power to investigate but what needs more clarification is how that relates to the work of the Electoral Commission. This is a Cross-Party debate that we need to have once the General Election is out of the way.
The weight that is given to the statements of defeated General Election candidates also needs to be taken into consideration, particularly when no effort was made to raise any grievances via the correct process in challenging the election result."