As Scrapbook pointed out yesterday, the scope of the government’s proposed changes to election campaign expenses will likely go far beyond their intended target (trade unions). Indeed, the first up for the Nick Clegg-backed circular firing squad could his Lib Dem colleague, energy and climate change secretary Ed Davey.
New rules forcing election agents to account for additional printing overhead costs such as office space will naturally lead to awkward questions over the current and future use of equipment purchased with MPs’ expenses. A case in point is the £14,687 industrial-standard envelope stuffing machine bought by Ed Davey with help from the now abolished Communications Allowance.
This machine can prepare 4,500 communications an hour, meaning that Davey could fill enough envelopes to reach every household in his constituency in just ten hours. The issue of whether taxpayers’ money has been used to bootstrap party propaganda operations — and how this would be accounted for under new proposals for election expenses — is one that may well lead the Electoral Commission to Kingston and Surbiton.
Perhaps Ed can start by revealing the whereabouts of his Maximailer Inserter and what he has been using it for since the Communications Allowance was abolished in January 2010.
