Hefty fine for anti-Brexiters
London – One of the main Brexit campaign groups was fined £70 000 (R1.1 million) by the electoral commission yesterday for breaking spending rules in Britain’s EU referendum – and police may have to investigate criminal offences, the commission said.
The commission, detailing its findings in a 31-page document, said Leave.EU incorrectly reported what it spent at the EU referendum, failing to include at least £77 380 in its spending return, thus exceeding a spending limit.
The documented breaches of electoral law are likely to fuel demands from opponents of Brexit for a re-run of the 2016 referendum, though there is little sign so far that the vote’s legitimacy has been undermined.
“These are serious offences,” said Bob Posner, the Electoral Commission’s director of political finance and regulation. “Leave.EU exceeded its spending limit and failed to declare its funding and its spending correctly.”
The commission said it suspected criminal offences may have been committed, and the person responsible, Leave.EU CEO Liz Bilney, had been referred to the police.
In the 2016 referendum, 17.4 million votes, or 51.9% of votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million votes, or 48.1%, backed staying.
But ever since the shock vote which divided the United Kingdom, opponents of Brexit have questioned what they say is Britain’s biggest mistake since World War II and the methods and funding of campaigners for Brexit.
Supporters of leaving the EU say opponents of Brexit are trying to water down or stop Brexit with a myriad of legal and political ploys that they warn could thrust Britain into a constitutional crisis.
Arron Banks, the founder of Leave.EU who was pictured with Donald Trump and leading Brexiteer Nigel Farage outside a gilded lift soon after the 2016 US presidential election, cast doubt on the commission’s impartiality.
Using the term Remoaners – which is often used by Brexiteers to describe opponents of Brexit such as former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair – Banks said he would face the commission in court.
“The Electoral Commission is a ‘Blairite Swamp Creation’ packed full of establishment ‘Remoaners’,” Banks said. “What a shambles.”