Is Osborne using public money to fund an election tour?

George Osborne is facing serious questions about the use of taxpayers’ money used to fund an “infrastructure tour”, where he tours marginal constituencies and announces funding for infrastructure projects.

The Times (£) report that the Chancellor has made 17 visits on the tour in the past month alone. Last week, he was in Southampton, where the Tories are 192 votes behind Labour, and the current MP John Denham is standing down. He’s also recently visited Stockton South, where the Tory MP James Wharton has a majority of 332; Hull,where two neighbouring constituencies have small Conservative majorities; Weaver Vale, with a Tory majority of 991; and three marginal seats (Bristol, Well and Taunton) in a single day. What could possibly be the reason for choosing these seats to announce new funding?

It is, of course, against the ministerial code for ministers to use Government visits for electioneering purposes. In practice, however, this is often difficult to police. Not that that stopped Osborne and co throwing the accusations about when they were in opposition.

Osborne has also hired a new taxpayer funded Special Adviser, Matt Cook, despite the fact that the Tories were damning in April about the similar role held by Ryan Coatzee, an aide to Nick Clegg.

Labour MP Sheila Gilmore has raised the issue of appropriateness of Osborne’s visits, saying:

“Neither special advisers nor civil servants are allowed to spend all their time working on political visits. Any funnelling of public resources to the Tories’ re-election campaign would be deeply inappropriate and in breach of government rules. Taxpayers’ money should not be spent on electioneering for George Osborne and the Tories.”