'Ello, 'ello, 'ello

You may recall from previous posts that my self-obsessed Member of Parliament has been going round telling the House of Commons and the newspapers that he's been the victim of electoral fraud.


Personally, I suggest that not telling your consituents that you're a property millionaire who plans only to lobby the government on lowering tax for property millionaires once elected constitutes electoral fraud, but then, I'm just a bloke with a laptop. 


Anyway, Naughty Paul lied to the House of Commons when he told them that the Electoral Commission were investigating fraud: they told me that they'd investigated an 'error' and closed the inquiry with the agreement of Uppal and other candidates months ago. They wrote to him reminding him of the actual truth. 


But hey, electoral fraud's a criminal offence, a very serious one. So I asked Uppalling whether he'd reported his suspicions to the police. Answer, inevitably, came there none. BUt nothing ventured, nothing gained. I bunged a Freedom of Information request in to the West Midlands police asking whether they were or had been investigating electoral fraud in the constituency, and whether our errant hero had reported anything to them. 


What do you think they said?

Have any Complaints been made regarding the electoral fraud in the Wolverhampton South West Constituency relating to the 2010 general election?

No. In the Wolverhampton South West general election it was acknowledged that some votes had been miscounted but all parties accepted that this would make no difference to the result.

Is a police investigation ongoing in regard to the above?

No

Have any arrests been made, or charges been preferred on this matter?

No

Has current member of parliament – Mr Paul Uppal contacted WMP about the electoral fraud in Wolverhampton South West?

West Midlands Police will neither confirm nor deny that any information is held by virtue of Section 40(5) of the Freedom of Information Act.

To reach a conclusion in this case I have used the Information Commissioner’s advice on Personal Data which is available on the Information Commissioner’s website.

The first consideration is whether the requested information is personal data. Clearly, as you name the individual concerned if any information is held it would be focused on that individual and, furthermore, this information would be biographical in a significant sense. It is therefore personal data.

I reckon that's as close to a 'no, he bloody hasn't, the big-mouthed bullshitter' as you're likely to get from the boys in blue.