Karl McCartney is among a number of Conservatives who were cleared of electoral fraud this morning by the Crown Prosecution Service.
The claims refer to incorrectly declaring campaign methods such as ‘battle busses’ as national spending during the 2015 General Election campaign.
In a statement, the CPS said: “Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest.”
The Conservative Party called the investigation ‘politically motivated’ and ‘a waste of police time’, whereas Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said the Conservatives had ‘driven a battle bus and horses’ through the spirit of the law.
Karl McCartney, who is standing for re-election in Lincoln, has always furiously denied the claims.
In a press statement released this morning he called on the Electoral Commission to come to an end, stating he would ‘take every opportunity after the General Election to persuade the newly-elected Government to abolish this incompetent organisation’.
Mr McCartney also called the investigation ‘no more than a politically-motivated witch-hunt’.