DUDLEY South Conservative Mike Wood has been vindicated after the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed it will not be pursuing criminal charges against Tory politicians who were alleged to have committed expenditure offences during the 2015 General Election campaign.

Mr Wood had faced allegations in the national press that he was among candidates and election agents accused of accepting a promotional visit from the Conservative Party’s national Battle Bus during the campaign and failing to declare it as part of local expenditure.

The 41-year-old, who was elected as a Tory MP for Dudley South in May 2015, maintained the Battle Bus visit – organised by Conservative Party HQ – was never intended or considered local spending on his campaign to win a seat in Parliament; he said it was only ever pitched to himself and his team as part of the national spend.

And after months of considering evidence from 14 police forces across the country – the CPS has today confirmed it will not be authorising any criminal charges into Mr Wood’s conduct or that of other accused Tory politicians and their agents.

Nick Vamos, CPS head of special crime, said: "We considered whether candidates and election agents working in constituencies that were visited by the Party's Battle Bus may have committed a criminal offence by not declaring related expenditure on their local returns.

"Instead, as the Electoral Commission found in its report, these costs were recorded as national expenditure by the Party.

"We reviewed the files in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and have concluded the tests in the Code are not met and no criminal charges have been authorised.

“Under the Representation of the People Act, every candidate and agent must sign a declaration on the expenses return that to the best of their knowledge and belief it is a complete and correct return as required by law. It is an offence to knowingly make a false declaration.

"In order to bring a charge, it must be proved that a suspect knew the return was inaccurate and acted dishonestly in signing the declaration.

"Although there is evidence to suggest the returns may have been inaccurate, there is insufficient evidence to prove to the criminal standard that any candidate or agent was dishonest.

"The Act also makes it a technical offence for an election agent to fail to deliver a true return. By omitting any Battle Bus costs, the returns may have been inaccurate. However, it is clear agents were told by Conservative Party headquarters that the costs were part of the national campaign and it would not be possible to prove any agent acted knowingly or dishonestly.

"Therefore we have concluded it is not in the public interest to charge anyone referred to us with this offence.”

Mr Wood, who has battled back from life-threatening sepsis earlier this year, said: “I am obviously pleased that the CPS lawyers agree that I have done nothing wrong and have dismissed the one complaint made about my last election campaign.

“Although the accusations were clearly politically motivated, it is right that they were investigated thoroughly and right that the independent investigation has cleared my name.

“I look forward to carrying on with my campaign, speaking to as many local people as I can and - if re-elected - continuing to work as hard as I can for everybody in Dudley South.”

He faces competition in the race to the polls this time round from Labour's Natasha Millward, Jonathan Bramall for the Lib Dems, Mitchell Bolton (UKIP) and Jenny Maxwell (The Green Party).

The CPS say one further file, from Kent Police, has only just been received and remains under consideration and Mr Vamos added: “No inference as to whether any criminal charge may or may not be authorised in relation to this file should be drawn from this fact and we will announce our decision as soon as possible once we have considered the evidence in this matter."