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Vote Leave: Brexit campaign 'broke electoral law' in referendum Vote Leave: Brexit campaign 'broke electoral law' in referendum
(about 2 hours later)
Brexit campaign group Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 and referred to the police after an Electoral Commission probe said it broke electoral law.Brexit campaign group Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 and referred to the police after an Electoral Commission probe said it broke electoral law.
The investigation found "significant evidence of joint working" between the group and another organisation - BeLeave - leading to it exceeding its spending limit by almost £500,000. The watchdog found it got round spending limits by funnelling cash through pro-Brexit youth group BeLeave.
Vote Leave also returned an "incomplete and inaccurate spending report", with almost £234,501 reported incorrectly, and invoices missing for £12,849.99 of spending, the watchdog said. The founder of BeLeave, Darren Grimes, has been fined £20,000 and reported to the police, along with Vote Leave official David Halsall.
BeLeave founder Darren Grimes has also been fined and referred to the police for breaking the group's spending limit by more than £665,000 and wrongly reporting the spending as his own. Vote Leave said the "wholly inaccurate" report was politically motivated.
Veterans for Britain were also found to have inaccurately reported a donation it received from Vote Leave and has been fined £250. The Vote Leave campaign, which was fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, won the contest to be the official Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union.
'Refused to cooperate' The result of the referendum was 51.9% for Leave and 48.1% for Remain. The UK is due to officially leave the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 29 March, 2019.
Bob Posner, from the Electoral Commission, said: "The Electoral Commission has followed the evidence and conducted a thorough investigation into spending and campaigning carried out by Vote Leave and BeLeave. Vote Leave and the official Remain campaign Britain Stronger in Europe were allowed to spend £7m each on campaigning in the run up to the referendum.
"We found substantial evidence that the two groups worked to a common plan, did not declare their joint working and did not adhere to the legal spending limits. These are serious breaches of the laws put in place by Parliament to ensure fairness and transparency at elections and referendums." Vote Leave spent nearly £2.7m of its budget on the services of a Canadian digital marketing firm, Aggregate IQ.
A further £675,315 was sent to Aggregate IQ by BeLeave, a group set up by Mr Grimes, then a fashion student at Brighton university.
The money came from Vote Leave which has said in the past it was told by the Electoral Commission it was allowed to do this because BeLeave was a separate campaign group.
But the Electoral Commission has ruled that the two groups were working together and Mr Grimes had "wrongly" reported the spending as his own.
He had also exceeded the £10,000 he was allowed to spend as a non-registered campaigner, the watchdog said.
Bob Posner, from the Electoral Commission, said: "We found substantial evidence that the two groups worked to a common plan, did not declare their joint working and did not adhere to the legal spending limits. These are serious breaches of the laws put in place by Parliament to ensure fairness and transparency at elections and referendums."
He added: "Vote Leave has resisted our investigation from the start, including contesting our right as the statutory regulator to open the investigation. It has refused to cooperate, refused our requests to put forward a representative for interview, and forced us to use our legal powers to compel it to provide evidence.He added: "Vote Leave has resisted our investigation from the start, including contesting our right as the statutory regulator to open the investigation. It has refused to cooperate, refused our requests to put forward a representative for interview, and forced us to use our legal powers to compel it to provide evidence.
"Nevertheless, the evidence we have found is clear and substantial, and can now be seen in our report.""Nevertheless, the evidence we have found is clear and substantial, and can now be seen in our report."
Vote Leave was the officially designated campaign group for Leave in the UK's referendum in 2016 into whether or not the UK should stay in the European Union. Another pro-Brexit group, Veterans for Britain, was also found to have inaccurately reported a donation it received from Vote Leave and has been fined £250.
The result of the referendum was 51.9% for Leave and 48.1% for Remain. The UK is due to officially leave the European Union at 23:00 GMT on 29 March, 2019. Vote Leave also returned an "incomplete and inaccurate spending report", with almost £234,501 reported incorrectly, and invoices missing for £12,849.99 of spending, the watchdog said.
'Motivated by political agenda'
A Vote Leave spokesman said: "The Electoral Commission's report contains a number of false accusations and incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate and do not stand up to scrutiny.A Vote Leave spokesman said: "The Electoral Commission's report contains a number of false accusations and incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate and do not stand up to scrutiny.
"It is astonishing that nobody from Vote Leave has been interviewed by the commission in the production of this report, nor indeed at any point in the past two years. Yet the commission has interviewed the so-called 'whistleblowers' who have no knowledge of how Vote Leave operated and whose credibility has been seriously called into question."It is astonishing that nobody from Vote Leave has been interviewed by the commission in the production of this report, nor indeed at any point in the past two years. Yet the commission has interviewed the so-called 'whistleblowers' who have no knowledge of how Vote Leave operated and whose credibility has been seriously called into question.
"Vote Leave has provided evidence to the Electoral Commission proving there was no wrongdoing. And yet despite clear evidence of wrongdoing by the Remain campaign, the commission has chosen to ignore this and refused to launch an investigation."Vote Leave has provided evidence to the Electoral Commission proving there was no wrongdoing. And yet despite clear evidence of wrongdoing by the Remain campaign, the commission has chosen to ignore this and refused to launch an investigation.
"All this suggests that the supposedly impartial commission is motivated by a political agenda rather than uncovering the facts."All this suggests that the supposedly impartial commission is motivated by a political agenda rather than uncovering the facts.
"The commission has failed to follow due process, and in doing so has based its conclusions on unfounded claims and conspiracy theories."The commission has failed to follow due process, and in doing so has based its conclusions on unfounded claims and conspiracy theories.
"We will consider the options available to us, but are confident that these findings will be overturned.""We will consider the options available to us, but are confident that these findings will be overturned."
A separate Brexit campaign, Leave.EU, was fined £70,000 in March for failing to declare "at least" £77,380 it spent on referendum campaigning.
Leave.EU chief executive Liz Bilney was referred to the police following the commission's investigation. Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks called it a "politically motivated attack" and said he would take the watchdog to court.
Leave.EU, which was fronted by then-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, was only allowed to spend £700,000 in the run up to the referendum, after losing out to Vote Leave in the battle to designated the official Leave campaign.
The official Remain campaign Britain Stronger in Europe, was fined £1,250 in December last year for not providing invoices and for declaring some spending in aggregate rather than individual payments.