LIBERAL Democrat Christine Jardine has defended her election record after questions were raised over her spending.
The MP for Edinburgh West is the second in her party to face queries over their expenses in two days, after deputy leader Jo Swinson was accused of omitting thousands of pounds from her spending total.
A report by The Herald claims Jardine, a former journalist, allocated a third of her election material bill to national spending, because it promoted the Lib Dems rather than her specifically as the local candidate.
READ MORE: Jo Swinson challenged to prove LibDems did not deliver the 93,000 election leaflets they paid for
It means she would have been £1,350 over the legal spending cap if this £3,000 had been counted towards her constituency campaign costs, according to the newspaper.
Jardine told BBC Radio Scotland: "Like every other candidate I think it's important that we follow the advice and the rules of the Electoral Commission.
"The rules are there for a reason and I am confident that we have followed that advice, at all times.
"There was money which was allocated as having been spent on the national campaign, but that's because it was spent on a national campaign.
"It's one of the weakest stories I've ever seen and I think it's nothing more than an exercise in reputational damage.
"Everything that we sent out was accounted for in our filing."
Speaking on the Good Morning Scotland programme, she added: "If it was local expenditure it would have been accounted for as local expenditure. It was national expenditure and therefore it was counted as national expenditure.
"That's kind of like saying 'I've spent X number amount on my car and X number of pounds on my house' and then trying to say everything was spent on my house."
Edinburgh West was one of the toughest electoral battles in the election and a specific target for the Lib Dems.
The party had held on to the seat since 1997, but it was won by the SNP's Michelle Thomson in 2015 by 3,120 votes.
East Dunbartonshire MP Jo Swinson has also faced questions after thousands of pounds were omitted from her expenses as they were attributed to national spending and undelivered campaign materials.
Official declaration for the June election indicates her spending was £210 under the official limit of £14,619, The Herald reported on Thursday.
She said more than 93,000 leaflets and other material bought by the party at a cost of £2,700 were never used so could be omitted from the total, as could £4,040 which went on national spending promoting the party rather than her as a candidate.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel