Will the police be investigating Grant Shapps?

As then Labour MP Phil Woolas discovered*, it’s against the law to lie about candidates (Representation of the People Act 1983, Section 106). Which is why a Labour MP has been able to call on the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate the Grant Shapps Wikipedia editing scandal:

Karl Turner, the party’s candidate for Hull East, said the edits made by a Wikipedia user called Contribsx created a “false impression as to my character and conduct”. Contribsx was blocked by the online encyclopedia earlier this week because of suspicions it was being operated by Shapps or “someone close to him”. Shapps denies the allegation…

Contribsx posted on Turner’s page that the Labour MP had “admitted breaking House of Commons rules by sending out invitations to a £45-a-head Labour party fundraising event from parliamentary email”. Contribsx did not add that the parliamentary commissioner for standards had dismissed the allegations, which were originally made by a local Tory councillor.

The significance of this is that if the police investigate, they can access much more detailed internet and computer evidence than is available to Wikipedia in order to track down who really made the suspicious edits.


* Until I read that post again to get the link, I had forgotten that Phil Woolas called advice I’d written on what election candidates shouldn’t do “naive”. I’m rather proud of that epithet.


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