Cornwall has some very large constituencies and Parliamentary candidates can easily travel more than 100 miles a day during the course of a general election campaign. So it's surprising that the Electoral Commission isn't more strict about how candidates and agents complete the "Transport" section of their election expense returns.
Many candidates ignore this section completely. Others include figures which just scream out for further inquiry. For example, North Cornwall's Sian Flynn (Conservative) declared 138 miles for "fuel," which for a constituency which stretches from Bodmin to Bude suggests an awful lot of cycling.
By amazing coincidence, South East Cornwall's Sheryll Murray (Conservative) also declared 138 miles for "fuel." "Fuel" of course is much cheaper than 40 pence per mile, and both candidates duly declared the cost at £55.20. This is clearly not the whole story so I sought further particulars.
The Conservative agent for both candidates, Bob Davidson, tells me that these were both journeys which he undertook from campaign HQ in St Austell. And because the distances were about the same he recorded identical figures when compiling the election expenses returns.
"The candidates' travel expenses will have been recorded as personal costs," he says, "and probably won't show up as individual detailed journeys." He's absolutely right - they don't show up at all.
In fact, none of the candidates from any of the parties tell us very much about their campaign travel costs. Perhaps for inner city constituencies it's not much of any issue. But in the large, rural, geographically-challenging constituencies we have in most of Cornwall, the ability to cover huge distances confers quite an advantage.
Another point for Nick Clegg to consider in his Parliamentary Reform Bill?
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