Leave campaign in chaos with rival groups at war

BITTER infighting between the rival groups campaigning for Britain to leave the EU descended into open warfare last night amid legal threats and accusations of dirty tricks.

The founder of the Leave.EU campaign, Arron Banks, launched a highly personal attack on senior figures within the rival Vote Leave organisation.

The multi-millionaire Ukip donor said the rival Vote Leave’s campaign director Dominic Cummings and chief executive Matthew Elliott were ‘two of the nastiest individuals I have ever had the misfortune to meet’, who he said he ‘wouldn’t trust to run a sweet shop’.

He accused them of making ‘false and defamatory’ briefings to the Press, which he said had led to legal warnings being issued to the group’s board.

Mr Banks said Labour people involved in the supposedly cross-party group had been treated with ‘ absolute contempt’. It followed the leaking of an email from millionaire John Mills, a senior Labour figure within Vote Leave, who warned ‘ damaging and unnecessary’ infighting was undermining its campaign efforts.

Yesterday it was also claimed Vote Leave’s Labour offshoot, Labour Leave, had split from the organisation and declared itself independent. An email from Brendan Chilton, Labour Leave campaign co- ordinator, said the group ‘does not endorse Vote Leave’.

But last night, Mr Mills, who founded Labour Leave, said i t remained part of the group. He said: ‘I am the founder and co- owner of Labour Leave. It is an independent campaign but corporately it supports Vote Leave.’