Is the elections quango really fit for purpose?
It is beyond a joke that the Government has failed to invest properly for the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal, and yet the Electoral Commission, the elections quango, has earmarked hundreds of thousands of pounds to prepare for European Parliament elections in 2019 – that is, in case Brexit doesn’t happen as promised. The Commission says it has not spent any money and does not anticipate doing so, but what does this “precautionary measure” say about the attitude in Whitehall towards Brexit talks? One pro-Remain source told this newspaper that it showed civil servants were planning for the UK not to leave next March after all, and that “for people like me [it’s] a welcome boost”. For anyone who voted Leave in 2016 and believed David Cameron’s famous pledge to honour the result, it will be dumbfounding.
This revelation is bound to turn attention once more to the Electoral Commission, which is struggling to prove it is fit for purpose. Four out of 10 members of its board, including its chairman, have openly criticised Brexit or called for a rethink. We have previously reported that judges ruled the watchdog was being misleading about advice it claimed not to have given Vote Leave regarding spending. The Commission has also pursued accusations against Brexiteers that they failed to come clean about joint spending with other campaigns, while rejecting calls for an inquiry into claims that Britain Stronger in Europe did something similar.
How will the Electoral Commission react to the latest allegation against the Remain campaign, that it should have declared the costs of a video posted on its website and Facebook page featuring celebrities? Remainers insist it is common practice to post what they call third-party content on social media. Priti Patel, the Tory MP, says it should have been declared as a free “service” it received, the cost contributing towards the official spending limit. Whatever the Commission decides to do next, it needs to understand that faith in it has already been severely rocked – and that, as with the consideration of MEP elections that are not even supposed to happen, it risks looking as if it has been fatally compromised by bad decisions.