There was one infamous invoice missing from the Electoral Commission’s campaign spending data yesterday — that of the EdStone. Labour claimed that the missing invoice was simply down to an ‘administrative error’ rather than a reluctance for the public to know how much money was spent on the disastrous election gaffe.
Happily Bloomberg News have been on the case. They report that recently unearthed invoices show that the 8ft stone with Labour’s election promises inscribed cost just under £8,000. While that is significantly less than the £30,000 reported by newspapers at the time, it can hardly be called a bargain. The stone led to ridicule after it was unveiled in the election run-up, with Labour’s blunder-ridden election genius Lucy Powell making the situation even worse when she said the promises on the stone could be broken:
‘I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he’s carved them in stone means he’s absolutely not going to break them or anything like that.’
And what happened to the EdStone after Labour’s election defeat? Labour sources now say it was swiftly destroyed and broken up in the week after the election.
RIP EdStone. Gone, but never forgotten.
Update: The first two EdStone receipts have finally been revealed
#EDstone receipts now received. Will be online morning of 23/01. We're investigating Labour over what happened (1/2) pic.twitter.com/ifvhhjd0es
— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) January 22, 2016
2nd #EDstone receipt here. Find out how we investigate in our enforcement policy here: https://t.co/PDtdGHCLBV (2/2) pic.twitter.com/VnjleyUvUO
— Electoral Commission (@ElectoralCommUK) January 22, 2016
Comments