The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
MPs call for referendum to be declared invalid
Vote Leave found to have broken electoral law over spending
MPs called for the EU referendum to be declared void after Vote Leave was found to have broken electoral law.
The official pro-Brexit campaign was fined a record £61,000 by the Electoral Commission, and senior figures have been referred to the police.
The organisation, supported by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, failed to declare spending ahead of the 2016 vote that would have taken it over strict limits, the commission found.
Tory MP Sarah Wollaston said: “Consequences must follow. We cannot have confidence that this referendum was secure and it should be re-run.”
Former Labour minister David Lammy MP said: “Can the government declare this referendum void on the basis of the evidence that we’ve been provided by the Electoral Commission?
“And if not, given this was an advisory referendum by this parliament, can she bring forward the vote in this parliament to declare this referendum void?”
But Luke Graham, a Tory MP in Perthshire who was finance director of Britain Stronger in Europe, said he could not support calls for the re-run.
“I don’t think it was material enough to swing the vote,” he told The Courier.
“A lot of people voted Leave, in Scotland as well, and we should respect the vote.”
The Electoral Commission ruled that Vote Leave did not declare money it spent with controversial data firm Aggregate IQ.
The commission also found “significant evidence” of joint working between Vote Leave and another campaign group, BeLeave, which was founded by student Darren Grimes.
A donation of almost £680,000 made by Vote Leave to BeLeave was at the centre of the investigation.
The commission found that BeLeave “spent more than £675,000 with Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave”, which should have been declared by the latter but was not.
This spending took Vote Leave over its £7 million legal spending limit by almost £500,000.
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.”
A Vote Leave spokesman said the Electoral Commission’s report contained “a number of false accusations and incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate and do not stand up to scrutiny”.
He said: “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.
“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.”
Meanwhile, SNP MP Pete Wishart said the Vote Leave decision demonstrated the “need for the Electoral Commission to fully investigate the Tory dark money in Scotland”.
The commission is probing donations from the Scottish Unionist Association Trust to party branches. John Lamont, the Tory MP, said last week that the payments were “all permissible donations and properly declared with the Electoral Commission”.