Leavers rally to support aide over ‘cheat’ claim in EU referendum
THERESA MAY’S political secretary has been backed by Cabinet ministers after he was accused of “outing” his exboyfriend following claims that the Leave campaign “cheated” on funding during the EU referendum.
Stephen Parkinson was accused by whistleblower Shahmir Sanni of helping the Leave campaign get around strict campaign spending laws.
In response, Mr Parkinson disclosed that he had been in an 18-month relationship with Mr Sanni and suggested he went public because of their split.
Mr Sanni responded by accusing Mr Parkinson of “outing” him as gay, and said his family in Pakistan – who did not know – had now been put at risk.
Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, defended Mr Parkinson as “someone of the highest integrity” and told ITV’S Peston on Sunday: “There are two sides to these stories.”
On the same programme, Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the Commons, said the “context of the background of these allegations” was important. Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, and Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, both rejected claims that the Leave campaign had cheated during the EU referendum. Both were leading figures in Vote Leave.
Mr Johnson said the claims were “utterly ludicrous”. He said: “Vote Leave won fair and square, and legally.”
Mr Gove added that the referendum had been “free and fair”.
During the referendum campaign Vote Leave gave £625,000 to Beleave. While it was entitled to give the donation, it was barred from directing its activities under electoral laws.
Mr Sanni, who worked for Beleave, claims the money was not a donation and was instead handed directly to Canadian data firm Aggregateiq.
The company has links to Cambridge Analytica, which harvested the data of 50 million Facebook users to build a political targeting system in the US.
Mr Sanni told The Observer that Vote Leave “didn’t really give us that money. They just pretended to. We had no control over it”.
However, Mr Parkinson will today publish emails and other information which, he says, prove the direct links between Vote Leave and Beleave. Dominic Cummings, the former head of Vote Leave, denied the allegations.
He said: “The whole story is the most loony accusation I’ve ever faced in 20 years in politics. A powerful set of people will do anything to try to shift public opinion in order that they can overturn the referendum.”
An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “The commission has a number of investigations open in relation to campaigners at the EU referendum. It does not comment on live investigations.”