It’s nearly over/It’s never over
Plus Rehman Chishti appears to breach expenses rules, news in brief, and more
Somehow, this General Election campaign, despite its short duration, feels like one of the longest in living memory. We’re nearly at the end, with just over a week until we go to the polls. As is customary on a Tuesday, we look at what each campaign has been up to this week. Further down, we have a curious story that appears to find Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti in breach of expenses rules, our news in brief section, and more.
It’s nearly over/It’s never over
As the General Election campaign lumbers toward its inevitable end, it’s mostly a case of steady as she goes in Medway, which at least mirrors the state of things across the country.
On the Conservative side, a video posted by the Medway Conservatives to promote Kelly Tolhurst emphasised that she was the “truly local” candidate, repeating that fact multiple times throughout the video. This is a slightly odd position, given that all seven candidates in Rochester and Strood live in the constituency, so all of them are, by definition, local candidates. Surely the Conservatives wouldn’t be dog whistling toward Labour rival Lauren Edwards’ Australian heritage, would they?
Elsewhere this week, Tolhurst has been out in Cliffe, Brompton with Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott, and Cuxton with former minister Chris Heaton-Harris, who decided to abandon ship rather than fight the coming election. She also promoted her small business credentials with videos focused on the Copper Rivet Distillery and whatever this meant to be with Stoke Airfield.
Over in Gillingham and Rainham, Rehman Chishti made it three hustings in a row that he failed to turn out, shunning the St. Mark’s Church event that he took part in during the 2019 campaign. On the campaign trail, beyond the odd day getting a moderate sized team out, he’s been skipping the doors and going straight for the windows of voters, regularly posting about “CATS”, posing with shopkeepers who proudly advertise they break retail law, and talking up his 2.5 hours of service as an army reservist.
Compared to this, newly installed Chatham and Aylesford candidate Nathan Gamester has been having a relatively solid campaign. Helpfully, he also summarised his week into one video setting out what has been going on including the fact he had former Conservative Party leader Michael Howard out on the doorstep with him. Howard on the campaign trail can surely only be a good omen for the party. Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
Labour in Medway continued their relentless march. Further proving how important the national party views the seats here, the battle bus rolled into Rochester today with Deputy Leader Angela Rayner on board. The campaign in Rochester and Strood seems to have picked up, with candidate Lauren Edwards taking out large teams of activists day after day. MPs have also been visiting, with former Medway councillor Bill Esterson joining the campaign (along with his dog for some reason), as well as Janet Daby and John Cryer.
It’s been a little quieter in the other constituencies. Over in Gillingham and Rainham, candidate Naushabah Khan is pushing for a banking hub following Natwest’s decision to leave Rainham, while Chatham and Aylesford candidate Tris Osborne is offering people signs with his name on. Those are sure to be popular.
The Lib Dems haven’t had a great week, though. They spent a day blanketing the Davis Estate with leaflets pushing their Rochester and Strood candidate Graham Colley, which would be helpful if the Davis Estate wasn’t actually in the Chatham and Aylesford constituency. Correct leaflets were hurriedly delivered the next day, presumably leaving some residents confused about exactly who their candidate is. Still, Chatham and Aylesford candidate Nicholas Chan has been making up for it as he vigorously campaigned in Carshalton and Wallington in London.
It’s been a fairly quiet week for Reform. Still, the Chatham and Aylesford branch have been posting about Labour introducing Sharia Law on Facebook and sharing these quite remarkable graphics, so there’s that.
A big campaign weekend for the Greens as they spent an entire day running a stall in Rochester High Street. At one point, an activist was spotted chasing a clearly uninterested voter down the street while brandishing a leaflet at them. Better than nothing, at least.
Following weeks of inaction, the SDP campaign finally rolled into life this week. Gillingham and Rainham candidate Peter Wheeler ran a street stall in Rainham, and their budget even included a roller banner. Over in Chatham and Aylesford, candidate Steve Tanner pitched up outside a chip shop, sadly sans banner.
Workers Party candidate for Chatham and Aylesford Matt Valentine launched an Instagram account this week, mostly populated with clips from our recent hustings event. It hasn’t exactly gone viral yet, claiming 10 followers, but there’s still another nine days of the campaign left for it to really take off.
Nine days, and we can all be free of this campaign that is somehow one of the shortest in history but feels like one of the longest. Not long now…
Rehman Chishti appears to breach expenses rules
We know it can be difficult to keep up with all the political scandals, and it can be easy for some of the smaller ones to pass us by.
So we were interested to spot a Guardian story this week about more than 120 Conservative MPs paying £100,000 of public funds to the Conservative Party's in-house web designers.
The MPs in question generated their websites using a system called Bluetree, paying for the work and then claiming it back via expenses. The Conservative Party insists Bluetree is independent despite not being listed on Companies House and having its address registered to a party staff member.
Rules from the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) forbid claiming public money for websites used for party political purposes. While it is acceptable for an MP to claim money to run a parliamentary website to update constituents on their work, any overt campaigning is against the rules.
Of course, this is a national story, so why are we talking about it here?
As you will have already guessed, at least one Medway MP appears to be in breach of the rules.
Gillingham and Rainham MP Rehman Chishti has a website designed by Bluetree and claimed £360 to cover an invoice from them last year. As the rules ban using the website for party political campaigning, most MPs using these sites have ceased posting on them via the campaign period. Chishti has complied with this, with no updates posted to his site since April 14.
More questionable, however, is his website's contact page, which states that by contacting him, you can agree to ‘the Conservative Party using the information I provide to send messages about local issues, campaigns and opportunities to get involved’. While this tick box is optional, it is clear that Chishti is attempting to use his website to gather data for party political purposes.
There is nothing to say that Chishti can’t have a website that collects such data if funded by himself or the Conservative Party, but this does appear to breach IPSA’s rules on publicly funded websites.
It should be noted that both of Medway’s other Conservative MPs also use websites built by Bluetree, but do not appear to be in breach of the rules. Tracey Crouch did claim the cost via her expenses, but she doesn’t appear to have used it to collect data for the party. On the other hand, Kelly Tolhurst does attempt to collect data on her website but hasn’t ever claimed for her website costs on expenses.
We requested comment from Rehman Chishti before publishing this story but received no response.
In brief
🏗️ Plans have been submitted for a 17-unit residential block of flats on Grange Road in Gillingham. The new homes would be built on land that is currently partly unused and partly houses private garages. A previous proposal for 22 flats on the site was rejected by Medway Council in 2020.
🔊 Audio company Bose has left Medway after 25 years. The company was previously based on Gillingham Business Park before moving to Chatham Dockside a decade ago, but has now relocated its operations to London.
🍗 A Morley’s chicken shop has opened on Strood High Street near Rochester Bridge. It’s the third branch of the outlet to open in Medway and somehow the second one in Strood.
🏦 Protestors have smashed the windows and scrawled graffiti on the Chatham branch of Barclays for the second time in two weeks. Responsibility was claimed by Palestine Action.
Can you help us?
🚚 A niche request, admittedly, but we’re trying to locate any Hire2You advertising vehicles parked around Medway. We’re aware of ones on Pier Road in Gillingham, Medway City Estate, and the Wainscott by-pass, but if you’ve spotted any others, please let us know!
Email hello@localauthority.news if you can help out with the above either on or off the record or if you have any stories that might interest our readers.
More Authority
Over the weekend, we published the final in a series of interviews with smaller parties standing in the General Election as we sat down with the Green Party candidates in Medway: Catriona Jamieson, Kate Belmonte, and Kim Winterbottom.
Elsewhere, I chatted to Journalism.co.uk about what we’re doing with Local Authority and the recent success of our hustings events.
Don’t forget that you can listen to two of our hustings events in full:
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Every Night by Saturday Looks Good To Me, Long Black Cars by The Wave Pictures, and A Bit of Previous by Belle and Sebastian.
Hello Ed & team
The only leaflets I have had through my letterbox are 3 from Rehman Chisti
Nothing from any other party This has been the case for many years
When I lived with my parents we used to receive leaflets from the 3 main parties
Thank you
"Are you thinking what we’re thinking?"
I instantly thought "Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you"
Showing my age?