Brexit Party issue legal threat over comments on ‘money-laundering’
The Brexit Party has issued a legal threat to the SNP’S senior MEP over comments he made on TV following the European elections.
A lyn Smith, who was returned to Brussels this week as one of three Nationalist MEPS from Scotland, claimed in an interview that the Brexit Party was “a money-laundering front and I have absolutely no doubt they’ll be shown to be every bit as feckless as their predecessors in Ukip were”.
That claim prompted the party’ s chairman, Richard Tice, to send a legal letter to Mr Smith calling for the MEP to make an immediate statement “making it absolutely clear that neither the Brexit Party nor Mr Tice are involved in money-laundering”.
The letter added that if no statement was made by noon today, legal proceedings will be begun against him.
In a TV interview, Mr Smith had said :“Well, I’ ve been doing this 15 years now, and I’m about to enter my fourth term, and I’ve seen these shysters come and go.
“And the only question about the Brexit Party now is which laws they have broken and where their campaign finances have come from and we’ll find that out after the campaign.
“But they’re a shell company that’s a money-laundering front and I have absolutely no doubt they’ll be shown to be ever y bit as feckless as their predecessors in Ukip were.”
The B rex it Party was launched by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage in November 2018 with the aim of ensuring the UK’S departure from the European Union.
It won 29 of the UK’S 73 seats at the European Parliament following last Thursday’s election.
In a statement issued yesterday, Mr Smith said: “Like many others, I would like to see a full, open, and transparent independent inquiry into the funding of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party.”
He also referred the Brexit Party’s law firm to the case of Gold smith and Another v Bhoyrul and Other (1998), which found that a political party “is not to have the power to sue in defamation pro - ceedings”.
Last week Mr Farage accused the Electoral Commission of being“absolutely full of Remainers” as the watchdog visited the Brexit Party’s headquarters amid a review into its donations system.
He claimed the regulator was not a neutral organisation and said he believed his party was “more compliant” than any others standing in the European elections.