Questions over Lord Sainsbury’s £3.7m donations to Remain groups

A SENIOR Remain donor gave more than £3million to five different campaign groups in the run-up to the EU referendum – including £50,000 to a group three days before it even officially registered.

Lord Sainsbury gave £2.9million to the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign and £815,000 to four smaller campaign groups. Two of those groups were registered as permitted participants less than a month before the referendum, with the peer handing over £579,000 to them.

It has been alleged that Remainbacking donors may have funnelled money into campaign groups set up just weeks before the referendum in order to avoid breaching campaign spending limits.

Meanwhile, it has also been claimed that Remain campaign groups may have coordinated their activity but failed to accurately reflect that in their spending returns. A source close to Lord Sainsbury and the Remain cam- paign said: “Donations were made on the basis of merit as and when projects came up. All of the appropriate rules were followed.” Britain Stronger in Europe has insisted it “always complied fully with Electoral Commission rules on working together and included any instances of it happening in our return to the Electoral Commission”.

Remain campaign sources suggested the claims were a “mischievous attempt by Leave campaigners to muddy the waters” with the Electoral Commission having previously announced an investigation into whether Vote Leave breached campaign finance rules.

Lord Sainsbury donated £369,000 to Best For Our Future Ltd and £210,000 to Virgin Management Ltd. Best For Our Future registered as a permitted participant on May 27 2016, less than a month before the June 23 referendum, while Virgin Management Ltd registered as a permitted participant on June 3 2016, less than three weeks before the vote. Lord Sainsbury’s first donation to Best For Our Future, of £50,000, was on May 24, three days before the group was registered as a permitted participant. Details of Lord Sainsbury’s donations were included in a letter sent to the Electoral Commission by Priti Patel, the former international development secretary and prominent Brexiteer.

Ms Patel urged the watchdog to undertake an investigation into claims of unlawful collusion between the different Remain campaign organisations.

In the letter, she wrote: “The close connections between the various ‘remain’ campaigners, their suppliers and donors … suggest that it is reasonable to infer that there may have been communications or other co-ordination between them.”