The BBC reports:
A newly elected Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) is facing calls to “stand aside” while she is investigated by police.
Officers are examining Alison Hernandez’s role in submitting expenses for Tory MP Kevin Foster in 2015.
Conservative, Ms Hernandez, was elected as Devon and Cornwall’s PCC on Friday.
Her political opponents say there is a “conflict of interest”, but Ms Hernandez says she will have no contact with officers investigating expenses.
Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, said: “She’s under investigation, her Conservative colleagues are being investigated and she’s a politically controlled PCC.”
He added that she should “absolutely” stand aside while the investigations take place.
The BBC understands Devon and Cornwall Police will bring in another force to investigate the expenses allegations.
A senior officer said: “Anything which could appear to be a conflict of interest has to be avoided.”
Adrian Sanders, the former Lib Dem MP for Torbay, who was beaten by Mr Foster in the 2015 general election, said Ms Hernandez “should stand aside” during the investigation.
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3 Comments
“she’s a politically controlled PCC”
Can anyone explain the reasoning behind PCC’s being party-sponsored? I had one independent PCC candidate but can’t understand why they weren’t all so.
Liberal Democrat MPs opposed this during the coalition. They delayed the process for six months but were unable to prevent it entirely. Therefore the first elections were in November rather than May. This is a Tory policy. Public opinion believes strongly that police should be supervised independently.
‘Can anyone explain the reasoning behind PCC’s being party-sponsored?’
Being sponsored by a party gives the electorate a quick idea of what your core beliefs are. Political parties have experience and skill in electioneering which gives them a head start in planning and executing a campaign over independant candidates. The disadvantage of independants is that they may have very strange individual beliefs or character and they may be over-dependant on one ot two individuals for funding.
However elected, the PCC, in office, needs to take a stance of being fair to all people, and not seen to favour particular interests, even if they helped get them elected.
For her own sake, Ms Hernandez needs to be free of any implication that she is in a position to influence the outcome of this investigation.
If the investigation exonerates her but leaves a suspicion that she could have influenced that result, that would not be a good result for her. So Adrian Sanders is quite right.