Official Brexit campaign ‘broke spending rules’ in EU referendum

THE ELECTIONS watchdog is expected to find that official Brexit campaign Vote Leave broke spending rules during the 2016 referendum.

The campaign group’s former chief executive, Matthew Elliott, said the Electoral Commission had concluded that Vote Leave exceeded spending limits by making a donation to another Brexitbacking group.

The campaign, which had support from senior Tories including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, is expected to challenge the commission’s findings when they are officially produced.

Mr Elliott accused the Commission of a “huge breach of natural justice”, alleging that the watchdog had not listened to Vote Leave’s version of events.

If found guilty of breaking electoral law, the campaign could face a hefty fine and anti-Brexit organisations could seize on the findings to boost their cause.

Mr Elliott told “(The Electoral Commission’s) initial conclusion is that we have overspent, that a donation we made to another group during the course of the campaign was incorrect, we shouldn’t have made that donation.”

The Commission said Vote Leave had taken an “unusual step” of going public with its draft findings. The allegations centre on a donation of almost £680,000 made by the campaign to a youth Brexit group called BeLeave.

It is alleged the money was actually used for the benefit of Vote Leave, to pay data firm Aggregate IQ for targeted messaging.

If this cash was recorded as Vote Leave expenditure, it would take the campaign’s spending over the £7m limit, raising the prospect that the law was breached.