Electoral Commission probes Scottish Lib Dem spending

The Scottish Lib Dems won five seats in the 2016 Holyrood election

The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into the Scottish Liberal Democrats' spending in the 2016 Holyrood election campaign.

The watchdog said it was investigating a complaint about whether the party's returns were "true and accurate".

The Lib Dems said all spending was above board, adding that there was "no substance" to the case.

They claimed the SNP were behind the complaints, and accused their rivals of "whinging" about the result.

The move comes after Police Scotland announced it would not be taking forward proceedings against Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton over spending in Edinburgh Western, the seat he captured from the SNP in May 2016.

The Electoral Commission said it had been aware that a police investigation was ongoing, and said it had "considered it appropriate to await the outcome of that investigation before considering whether to open an investigation into party spending".

Public record

An spokesman for the SNP said that the Lib Dems "have a track record in failing to properly declare" election expenditure.

He added: "The widespread suspicion is the Lib Dems wrongly declare constituency expenses as party expenses to disguise exceeding local spending limits.

"The fact of the matter is that Alex Cole-Hamilton submitted an expenses return declaring some expenses were national Lib Dem expenses - but these are missing from the Lib Dem expenditure return.

"Either Alex Cole-Hamilton wrongly declared that these expenses were party expenses or the Lib Dems have wrongly claimed that their return is correct."

However, the Lib Dems insisted that "all expenditure in the election was apportioned correctly and clearly identified in our election return, which is a matter of public record".

A spokesman added: "We have full confidence that there is no substance to this complaint.

"Perhaps the SNP should spend less time whinging when they lose an election and more time addressing the problems they have created for themselves in education, health and the police service."

Questions have also been raised about Lib Dem spending in the UK general election in 2017, with UK leader Vince Cable insisting his deputy Jo Swinson and Edinburgh West MP Christine Jardine have "nothing to apologise for".

The UK party was fined £18,000 by the commission in December 2017 for "failing to deliver a complete and accurate spending return" for the EU referendum.