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BRITAIN-EU-BREXIT-POLITICS-FINE-LEAD
UK’s official Brexit campaign fined, referred to police
LONDON, July 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Britain’s official Brexit campaign,
Vote Leave, has been fined for breaking spending rules in the 2016 EU
membership referendum, the Electoral Commission announced Tuesday, adding
that it had referred the case to the police.
The Electoral Commission regulator said the winning side in the
referendum had worked together with a smaller pro-Brexit group called BeLeave
and had made a donation to the youth organisation to get around its own
campaign finance limits.
“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,” said Bob Posner, the commission’s director of political
finance and regulation.
“These are serious breaches of the laws put in place by parliament to
ensure fairness and transparency at elections and referendums,” Posner said.
A Vote Leave spokesman accused the Electoral Commission of being
“motivated by a political agenda rather than uncovering the facts”.
The spokesman said there were “a number of false accusations and
incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate and do not stand up to
scrutiny”.
– Spending rules –
In the referendum, the official pro- and anti-Brexit campaign groups,
designated by the Electoral Commission, had spending limits of œ7 million
($9.3 million, 7.9 million euros).
The commission’s report found that the Vote Leave campaign made a
donation of more than œ675,000 to BeLeave, and because they worked together
had thereby exceeded the œ7 million spending limit by almost œ500,000.
The report said BeLeave, which was founded by fashion student Darren
Grimes, spent more than œ675,000 with AggregateIQ, a Canadian digital
political advertising company, under a “common plan” with Vote Leave.
Shahmir Sanni, who worked with Vote Leave, alleged the money was used to
pay AggregateIQ for targeted messaging services on Facebook and other social
media.
AggregateIQ was mentioned in the scandal over Cambridge Analytica, a now
defunct British company accused of misusing data obtained from Facebook to
micro-target political ads.
Christopher Wylie, a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, said that
AggregateIQ was linked to Strategic Communication Laboratories, CA’s parent
company.
AggregateIQ insists it has never been part of CA or SCL, never entered
into a contract with CA and has never employed Wylie.
– Investigation shared with police –
The Electoral Commission said Vote Leave, which had support from leading
eurosceptic Boris Johnson, also returned an incomplete and inaccurate
spending report and failed to submit some invoices for its spending.
The independent body said it had referred the case to police “in relation
to whether any persons have committed related offences which lie outside our
regulatory remit”.
Vote Leave was fined œ61,000 and Grimes was fined œ20,000, the maximum
levy for an individual.
But the Vote Leave spokesman said it had provided evidence to the
Electoral Commission “proving there was no wrongdoing”.
“We will consider the options available to us, but are confident that
these findings will be overturned,” he said.
– ‘Dodgier than ever’: MP –
Grimes said allegations that he colluded with Vote Leave had never been
put to him by the commission in two years of interaction.
He claimed he had been fined for “the wrong box being ticked on an
application form” and said the fine was “entirely disproportionate and
unjustified”.
“I did nothing wrong,” he insisted.
In the referendum, 52 percent voted for Britain to leave the EU. It is
set to quit the bloc in March.
David Lammy, a pro-EU main opposition Labour lawmaker, said: “This news
makes the narrow referendum result look dodgier than ever. Its validity is
now in question.”
The fines, and any possible criminal convictions, would not annul the
2016 referendum result.
Prime Minister Theresa May wants Britain to remain economically close to
the EU by adhering to its common standards on goods.
However, she faces a tough time getting her proposals through parliament,
with hardcore Brexiteers in her Conservative Party expected to rebel in votes
later Tuesday.
The pro-EU Liberal Democrat opposition party’s Brexit spokesman Tom
Brake said Vote Leave was a “deeply dishonest campaign” and Tuesday’s
findings strengthened the need for a new referendum on whatever final
departure deal May strikes with Brussels.
“The public have been cheated,” he said.
BSS/AFP/RY/1718 hrs