A British general election in the next few months became more likely yesterday. Knowing that Theresa May was likely to ask for Brexit to be postponed – as she did this morning – the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said that only something as compelling as a second referendum or a general election could justify a delay.
That makes a little-reported trial that concluded in January of critical importance now. Marion Little, an experienced organiser employed directly by the Conservative Party’s central headquarters, was found guilty of breaking electoral law. In a bid to prevent UKIP leader Nigel Farage winning in South Thanet in 2015, Little deliberately exceeded campaign spending limits and created dishonest documents to hide what she had done during the election. She was given a nine-month suspended sentence and fined £5,000.
Little effectively ran Tory MP Craig Mackinlay’s winning campaign in South Thanet. (Mackinlay himself was cleared of breaking electoral spending laws.) In his sentencing remarks, Mr Justice Edis said laws relating to elections were there “to protect democracy itself”. But in an uncoded warning to those in the Conservative Party above Marion Little who supervised her work, the judge said that there was “a culture of convenient self-deception and lack of clarity as to what was permissible in law and what was not at Conservative Central Headquarters”.
