Ditch electoral watchdog, say campaigners
THE electoral watchdog should be abolished and its powers handed back to local councils, the three remaining board members of the Vote Leave campaign group say today.
The call came as Alan Halsall, one of the directors, spoke out for the first time to lay bare the personal toll on him of the Electoral Commission’s pursuit of him following the 2016 referendum.
MPs on the public administration and constitutional affairs committee are due to grill officials from the commission about its work on Thursday. Earlier this month the Government said it was considering whether to allow the commission to have beefed up powers to pursue its own prosecutions.
A review by the committee for standards in public life said it would “consider whether the Electoral Commission should play a role in criminal prosecutions for breaches of election finance laws”.
This came despite police in May dropping an investigation into Mr Halsall, and Darren Grimes, founder of pro-Brexit youth group BeLeave, for failing to declare a payment related to the campaign.
The watchdog said that BeLeave “spent more than £675,000 with (Canadian data firm) Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave”.
This spending took Vote Leave over its £7million legal spending limit by almost £500,000. Vote Leave had said they had acted within the rules.
As large legal costs mounted, Vote Leave paid a £61,000 fine last year, but denied any wrongdoing, while Mr Grimes won an appeal against his £20,000 fine.
Vote Leave is currently being wound up by its directors Mr Halsall, Jon Moynihan and Daniel Hodson, a legal process that can take months.
In a statement to The Sunday Telegraph the trio said: “The board of Vote Leave is firmly of the belief that the Electoral Commission should be abolished, and its functions returned to the various institutions that have traditionally occupied those roles.”
Mr Moynihan has suggested that its powers are split between existing bodies, with Companies House keeping a register of candidates or campaigners.
He added that a group of senior council returning officers should regulate referendums and check donations and expenses against the law while the police would investigate and prosecute infractions.
In a submission to the committee, titled Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? (Who will guard us from the guardians?) Mr Moynihan said that the commission was “an experiment that has failed”.
Mr Moynihan said that the commission was set up by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2000 “as a solution to a perceived problem that all agreed was at worst only a small one – and which in reality didn’t exist at all”.
He added: “Its recent actions have created a situation where honest citizens will now understandably fear to engage in the democratic process for elections or referenda, especially if the commission is allowed to continue.”
A commission spokesman said: “The Electoral Commission was created to provide integrity and transparency of party and election finance; well-run elections and referendums which produce results that are accepted; and to develop public understanding of the way our democracy works. These are vital functions, which our democracy cannot be without.”
Sources pointed out that the commission imposed fines on Vote Leave for breaking electoral law that have been paid. They added that it referred Vote Leave to the police so that potential offences that lie outside of its remit could be properly investigated.