Craig Mackinlay charged over election expenses

The Conservative candidate Craig Mackinlay says he will carry on his campaign in South Thanet, despite being charged with “corrupt practices” over his 2015 election expenses.  Mr Mackinlay described the decision to prosecute as “shocking”, while Theresa May said she believed the allegations were unfounded. Mr Mackinlay is accused of falsely declaring expenses in the run-up to the last election, when he narrowly beat Ukip’s Nigel Farage. Two other Tories were charged, Mr Mackinlay’s then agent Nathan Gray, and Marion Little, a senior campaign specialist at Conservative Party headquarters who was given an OBE  for “political service” last year. Today’s charges follow a year-long probe by this programme’s investigations team and our political correspondent Michael Crick.