PM pleads for time on deal
Brexit Party accept ‘Putin’ as £25 member
Fighting back, eh? Nice. I like fighting. Ask Ukraine...
Farage yesterday NIGEL Farage has been accused of allowing “fake members” to join his Brexit Party – as the Mirror signed up as Vladimir Putin.
The revelation shows how the party could be opening the door to millions in donations from foreign sources.
The former UKIP leader boasted yesterday that 100,000 people had signed up as £25-a-year supporters of his party.
But a Mirror investigation found it was possible to join as Vladimir Putin, giving the address of the Kremlin.
Labour’s Chris Bryant said: “A fake party, with fake members offering fake solutions. That sums them up.”
The £25 payment can be taken from credit cards registered in any country.
And PayPal, who process the payments, do not tell the Brexit Party what country the money is coming from.
Unlike most other parties, the Brexit Party’s website has no measures to confirm the identity of donors.
It means Farage’s party could have received up to £2.5million in unregistered donations, and nobody would be able to find out where they came from.
The Mirror tested the websites of the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, the THERESA May will ask for more time to deliver her Brexit deal in talks with Tory chiefs this morning about her future.
She will tell the Tory backbench 1922 Committee key laws must be passed by the summer break for the UK to leave the EU.
Senior Tories want the PM to set a timetable for her departure from No10 even if Brexit remains unresolved.
She has resisted naming a
TALKS May faces tough meeting Liberal Democrats, Change UK, the Brexit Party and UKIP.
Neither Labour, the Lib Dems or Change UK accept PayPal as a payment method, and their credit card system requires the donor’s address to match the card billing address.
The Conservative Party requires donors and members to pay through their card system or as a registered PayPal user, which creates a paper trail.
They’re also required to accept the terms and conditions, which allow the party to reject membership applications at any time. Only the Brexit Party and UKIP accept donations through PayPal without the user creating an account.
Political parties can only accept donations of more than £500 from UK registered voters or organisations.
But a loophole means payments under £500 are not considered “donations”, and so could come from anywhere.
Parties are only required to collect details on sources of donations over £500.
And there are no regulations governing cash given to parties as “membership fees”, such as the £25 payment to register as a Brexit Party supporter. date. But the 1922 executive could change party rules to allow a confidence vote. Rebel MPs have warned Mrs May faces defeat when she tries for the fourth time to get the EU withdrawal agreement bill through in June. Trade Secretary Liam Fox said failure would leave the UK facing no deal or no Brexit at all.
Nigel Dodds, of the DUP, said defeat was “highly likely”. Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay said if it failed to pass the “deal is dead”.