Vote Leave fined and reported to police for breaking electoral law

THE official Brexiteer campaign organisation at the 2016 referendum has been fined tens of thousands of pounds and senior figures referred to the police for breaking electoral law.

Vote Leave, which was supported by senior politicians including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, failed to declare money it spent with controversial data firm Aggregate IQ, the Electoral Commission said.

The commission said its investigation found “significant evidence” of joint working between Vote Leave — which has been fined £61,000 — and youth Brexit group BeLeave, founded by student Darren Grimes.

Mr Grimes was fined £20,000 and referred to the Metropolitan Police along with David Halsall, the responsible person for Vote Leave, “in relation to false declarations of campaign spending”, it added.

The Commission found that a donation of almost £680,000 by Vote Leave to BeLeave was spent with Aggregate IQ “under a common plan with Vote Leave”, and should have been declared.

This spending took Vote Leave over its £7m legal limit by almost £500,000.

Bob Posner, Electoral Commission director of political finance, 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.”

Vote Leave was the official Brexit-supporting campaign group for the 2016 poll.

A Vote Leave spokesman said the commission’s report contained “a number of false accusations and incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate”, and accused it of ignoring “wrongdoing” by Remain campaigners.

He reiterated the claim that the Commission failed to interview anyone from the campaign despite them being “willing to do so”.