What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Labour firebrand Dennis Skinner has blasted Theresa May's "squalid" tactics for letting MPs stand again in the general election - even if they could be charged with fraud.

The veteran 'Beast of Bolsover' spoke out today after it emerged Tory MPs could be prosecuted days before the upcoming general election on June 8.

Fourteen police forces have handed files relating to 2015 general election spending to the Crown Prosecution Service, which must decide whether to prosecute by early June.

That means it could choose to charge MPs days before voters in their constituencies go to the polls.

Yet the Prime Minister said she "stands by" every single MP - and they will be allowed to stand for re-election.

(Image: pixel GRG)

Mr Skinner asked her in the House of Commons: "Will the Prime Minister give a guarantee that no Tory MP who is under investigation by police and the legal authorities over election expenses in the last general election can be a candidate in this election?

“Because if she won’t accept that, this is the most squalid election campaign that’s happened in my lifetime.”

The PM replied: “I stand by all the Conservative MPs that are in this House and will be out there standing again, campaigning for a Conservative government that will give a brighter and better future for this country.”

Not declaring all election spending is a criminal offence. The MPs involved and their agents face one year in jail and an unlimited fine if convicted.

The allegations relate to how spending was declared in the 2015 general election, when the Tories' touring battlebus was classed as a national not local expense.

Several MPs questioned the timing of Mrs May's decision to hold an election after promising several times she would not.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told MPs: "The timing of the election and the role of the CPS is extremely interesting".

Labour MP Rob Flello said: “Isn't the reality that what has focused her mind is the fact that she may well lose some of her backbenchers if the CPS have their way?”

(Image: Getty)

SNP MP Joanna Cherry asked if reports that MPs "face being prosecuted for electoral fraud" had “anything to do with the Prime Minister's change of heart.”

Her party colleague Tommy Sheppard added: “I think it is remarkably suspicious.”

All the accused MPs deny wrongdoing and insist the battlebus activists were helping the national Tory campaign, so didn’t need to be declared locally.

But the Electoral Commission has already said it “is satisfied that a proportion of the reported spending [on the battlebuses] was candidate campaign spending” but was “not included in any relevant candidate’s campaign expenses return, casting doubt on the accuracy of those returns”.