Ecologist owner and Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith has appeared on Channel 4 News to respond to questions it has raised about his campaign costs during the general election.
Goldsmith was interviewed by Jon Snow on Friday night’s programme.
The allegations were aired the previous night. Despite them being put to Goldsmith six days in advance he apparently opted not to respond on that night’s programme but instead to talk to Sky News while the programme was being broadcast.
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The investigation was jointly carried out by Channel 4 News and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
Goldsmith insisted on Friday night that he did agree to an interview: “I contacted Channel 4 and said I would like to come and do a live interview to address these issues on air, head-to-head. You clearly tried to create the impression I was unwilling to do so.”
Channel 4 alleged that Goldsmith overspent on items such as posters, leaflets and jackets for campaign workers.
He said: “Before having the posters designed, which were centrally designed, we checked – we didn’t want to have to do two posters – local election and national election because people aren’t going to have two posters in their garden.
“It says my name, my picture and Vote Conservative. This is absolutulely standard across the country.
“Every decision we took was approved by election experts in central office, Conservative Party.”
Goldsmith complained that he was unfairly singled out. But Press Gazette understands that more campaign finance revelations about other MPs are on their way from the BIJ and Channel 4.
Here’s the original Channel 4 News report on Goldsmith’s expenses:
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