LONDON — Former Conservative MP and current candidate, Craig Mackinlay, has been charged with knowingly making false declarations of his election expenses.

Mackinlay narrowly beat then UKIP leader Nigel Farage in 2015 to become the MP for South Thanet.

However, Mackinlay is accused of failing to properly declare spending on his campaign. The allegations surround his use of the Conservative party's "battlebus" used to bus national activists in to help win the seat.

Under election rules all spending on local campaigns must be listed separately and be within a set limit.

In a statement the Crown Prosecution Service said on Friday morning that they had authorised charges to be made against Mackinlay, as well as separate charges against one of his campaign aides and against another national Conservative party official.

"On 18 April we received a file of evidence from Kent Police concerning allegations relating to Conservative Party expenditure during the 2015 General Election campaign," Nick Vamos, CPS Head of Special Crime, said.

"We then asked for additional enquiries to be made in advance of the 11 June statutory time limit by when any charges needed to be authorised.

"Those enquiries have now been completed and we have considered the evidence in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

"We have concluded there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to authorise charges against three people.

"Craig Mackinlay, 50, Nathan Gray, 28, and Marion Little, 62, have each been charged with offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983 and are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 4 July 2017.

"Criminal proceedings have now commenced and it is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceeding."

Mackinlay has been charged with breaching Section 82 of Representation of People Act 1983.

In a statement, a Conservative party spokesperson said they believed the charges would prove to be unfounded.

"The legal authorites have previously cleared Conservative candidates who faced numerous political and unfounded complaints over the Party's national battlebus campaigning.

"We continue to believe that this remaining allegation is unfounded. Our candidate has made clear that there was no intention by him or his campaigners to engage in any inappropriate activity. We beleive that they hav done nothing wrong , and we are confident that this will be proven as the matter progresses."

They added: "There is a broad consensus that election law is fragmented, confused and unclear, with two different sets of legislation and poor guidance from the Electoral Commission."

The Conservative Party were fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission earlier this year for making false declerations of election expenses across the country.

The fines related to a number of seats contested by the party in 2015 as well as several by-elections in 2014.

The commission found the party's general election spending return was missing payments worth at least £104,765 while other payments worth up to £118,124 were either not reported to the commission or were incorrectly reported.

The CPS later decided not to authorise charges against a number of other Conservative MPs, having found insufficient evidence that the false declarations had been made knowingly.

This is a developing story...