Kent Police met the Crown Prosecution Service today to discuss their investigation into claims about the Conservative party’s general election expenses in South Thanet.

The meeting comes a week after the Conservative party was fined a record £70,000 for irregularities in the way its election expenses were reported.

The CPS confirmed the meeting had taken place but said it would not be saying anything about what had been discussed.

However, it is understood that no "full" file was handed over by the police.

The CPS disclosed last week that 12 other forces have sent files concerning Conservative general election expenses claims made in 2015.

Kent Police has had a nine-strong team investigating the allegations and recently interviewed the MP Craig Mackinlay under caution for six hours.

The focus of the investigation has been on whether hotel expenses to accommodate campaign managers and activists were wrongly attributed to national party expenditure rather than candidate expenditure.

Had those expenses been incorporated into Mr Mackinlay's returns, the legal limit on how much candidates can spend would have been breached.

The police is also looking at the party's use of so-called "battle buses" that were used to bring activists to campaign on behalf of Mr Mackinlay.

The Electoral Commission investigation concluded that part of a bill for the accommodation of campaign managers at the Royal Harbour Hotel totalling £15,641 should have been declared as candidate spending but was not.

Its report said the party had under-reported the money spent on Mr Mackinlay's campaign and “as a result there is doubt as to the accuracy and completeness of his election expenses return.”

On the party’s use of battle buses, the commission concluded that it was satisfied "a proportion of the reported spending was candidate campaign spending and should not have been included in the party’s return."

In a statement on the police inquiry, the party said: "The ongoing investigations relate to national spending by CCHQ and the national Party will continue to co-operate with the police and other authorities so that the matter can be resolved as soon as possible."