WITH reference to the Conservative Party election expenses scandal and their recent £70,000 fine, on the day this story broke (March 16) a Tory MP was on BBC radio news saying (verbatim quote): “...We’ve been proactively co-operating with the authorities from the outset”.

This is quite clearly a blatant lie, and nothing more than cynical PR spin.

In stark contrast, the BBC’s website reports that “...The Electoral Commission’s chief executive Claire Bassett told BBC Radio 5 live the investigation had taken much longer than necessary because of ‘some difficulties’ in getting information from the Conservative Party.

She added that having had to get a court order to get information was ‘very disappointing’.”

One wonders how much longer these ethically barren politicians can get away with hoodwinking the electorate.

But there are wider issues.

Depending on the outcome of twelve individual constituency police investigations (which, I hear, may include at least one Gloucestershire seat), this could mean that at least some constituency results are unsafe, and so the general election result void, because the Tory majority was so small and the constituencies being investigated “happened to be” marginals.

The crucial question arises, where would that leave Brexit?

Brexit would surely never have happened, had there been a hung parliament, which is what then-PM David Cameron and the Tories were expecting.

And a referendum promise was cynically included in the Tory manifesto as a bargaining-chip to then blame on whoever ended up as partners in a Tory-led coalition as to why they couldn’t hold a referendum.

Further still, the break-up of the UK will be collateral sideshow that accompanies these self-interested Tory Party shenanigans.

How anyone can view the Conservatives as competent, and believe in the illusion that we’re safe in their hands, is completely beyond my comprehension.

Dr Richard House

Stroud