The commission’s response

The Electoral Commission said: “We open investigations and impose sanctions where justified by evidence, irrespective of the political views of the party or campaigner. We investigated Vote Leave, and found it to have broken electoral law.

“Mr Halsall was the ‘responsible person’, a role which carries formal duties and responsibilities set out in law. He did not meet all these responsibilities. Fines were imposed, and have been paid.”

The commission said it opened “investigations based on evidence, and October 2017 was the first time we had evidence that gave us reasonable grounds to suspect offences”. It added that “in June 2018 we announced the findings of our first and only investigation into joint spending by Vote

Leave”. It said the “Good Law Project did not give us any evidence to consider” and “formed no part of our decision to investigate” and stressed that “Vote Leave had a number of opportunities to put across its side and to provide us with evidence... We asked Vote Leave to come in for interview and Vote Leave decided not to.

“During the investigation, we requested witnesses to attend interviews... However, Mr Halsall and Vote Leave, through their legal representatives, declined interviews on multiple occasions.

“There is no substance to the allegations that the commission is biased. We have investigated campaigners and parties across the political spectrum, including those on both the Leave and the Remain sides of the referendum debate.”