The Crown Prosecution Service has announced that the Conservative candidate for the South Thanet seat and two other people have been charged over alleged election expenses offences.
Who is Craig Mackinlay and what is he charged with?
Mackinlay, 50, is an accountant and former Ukip parliamentary candidate who joined the Conservatives in 2005. A Kent local, he took the South Thanet seat at the 2015 election over Ukip’s then leader, Nigel Farage.
He served as the MP until parliament was dissolved before the 8 June election and is standing again.
Mackinlay was among a series of 2015 Conservative candidates investigated by police over allegations the party spent beyond permissible limits in some marginal seats by wrongly allocating spending on a battlebus as national, rather than local, spending.
After an investigation by Kent police, the CPS said Mackinlay would face two charges of knowingly making incorrect spending declarations, under the Representation of the People Act.
Who else has been charged?
Nathan Gray, 28, Mackinlay’s election agent in 2015, faces three similar charges – two over allegedly incorrect spending returns and one over incorrect spending.
Marion Little, a 62-year-old party activist, faces five charges – two connected to allegedly aiding and abetting Mackinlay and three connected to Gray’s charges.
Why does Mackinlay remain on the ballot paper?
To begin with, he has not been convicted of anything, and could be acquitted. Mackinlay has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Additionally, it is too late: nominations for candidates to stand closed at 4pm on 11 May, meaning that even if the party did want to replace him, it could not.
Also, it is only a week from election day so some postal votes will already have been submitted.
What are the Conservatives saying?
The party has released a statement standing by Mackinlay, saying it believes the charges are unfounded and criticising the law under which he is charged as “fragmented, confused and unclear”.
Why did this decision come separately from the others?
On 10 May, the CPS announced it was taking no further action after police investigations into similar allegations against more than 20 other Conservative candidates from 2015. However, Kent police took slightly longer to investigate the South Thanet case.
What happens now?
Mackinlay, Gray and Little are scheduled to appear for a preliminary hearing at Westminster magistrates court in central London on 4 July.
On the assumption they all deny the charges, the case could be heard before a jury at a crown court, with possible punishments including fines or up a year in prison.
If Mackinlay were elected and then convicted, he would not automatically lose his role as an MP. However, under the Recall of MPs Act 2015, if he were sentenced to jail, once any appeal had been exhausted it would trigger a byelection.
MPs automatically lose their seats if they are jailed, or unlawfully at large, for more than a year. This has been the since a law was introduced in 1981 after the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands was elected to parliament. However, this would not apply to Mackinlay unless he was jailed for a year for both offences, to be served consecutively.
The Commons standards committee can also investigate wrongdoing by MPs and recommend they be expelled via a vote in the chamber. However, this power has not been exercised for decades.
Is he likely to win the seat?
With Ukip, the main challengers in 2015, seemingly a faded force, Mackinlay had been the clear favourite for South Thanet. Bookmakers still have him as 1-3 or 1-4 to take the seat, with Labour seen as the closest challengers.
Farage opted to not refight South Thanet, and the party has instead put forward a local councillor, the Rev Stuart Piper, a former NHS chaplain.
