Why is the Electoral Commission trying to make life difficult for journalists?
The Electoral Commission has been advising councils to refuse reporters permission to take notes from general election expenses, Freedom of Information documents appear to reveal. Under the Representation of the People Act, members of the public have the right to inspect expenses incurred at elections by candidates. Local councils hold this information and are required to make them available for inspection when requested. Given the fact that political expenses have been rarely out of the news in the last 18 months, and the massive gulf in spending by the Conservatives and every other party, general election expenses were always going to attract more interest this year than in previous years. Yet the Electoral Commission seems to have done all it can to make the process of reporting what was spent and by whom as difficult as possible. A Freedom of Information request posted on the What Do They Know website has resulted in the Commission revealing that it told councils there was ‘no prov
