Brexit campaign group fined by British elections watchdog for breaking spending rules

[webfact]

Brexit campaign group fined by British elections watchdog for breaking spending rules

By Alistair Smout

 

A worker answers a telephone in the office of Brexit group pressure group "Leave.eu" in London, Britain February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/Files

 

LONDON (Reuters) - One of the main Brexit campaign groups in Britain's 2016 EU referendum was fined 70,000 pounds ($95,000) on Friday for incorrectly reporting what it spent and exceeding a limit on expenditure, the Electoral Commission said.

 

The commission said Leave.EU incorrectly reported what it spent at the EU referendum, failing to include at least 77,380 pounds in its spending return and thus exceeding a spending limit.

 

Such is the seriousness of the offences that the commission said it suspected criminal offences may have been committed by the person responsible and referred the case to the police.

 

"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," Posner said.

 

In the June 23, 2016 referendum, 17.4 million votes, or 51.9 percent of votes cast, backed leaving the EU while 16.1 million votes, or 48.1 percent of votes cast, backed staying.

 

Leave.EU said the total alleged overspend represented less than 0.1 percent of the total campaign finance spend and was a risible attempt to portray the campaign as breaking the rules.

 

Arron Banks, the founder of Leave.EU, cast doubt on the Electoral Commission's impartiality, saying it was packed full of opponents of Brexit, who are sometimes known as "Remoaners".

 

"The Electoral Commission is a 'Blairite Swamp Creation' packed full of establishment 'Remoaners'," Banks said.

 

"We view the Electoral Commission announcement as a politically motivated attack on Brexit and the 17.4 million people who defied the establishment to vote for an independent Britain," he said.

 

The commission said Leave.EU failed to include services it received from U.S. campaign strategy firm Goddard Gunster in a spending return. The commission also found Leave.EU inaccurately reported three loans it had received.

 

But the voting regulator said it had found no evidence that Leave.EU received donations or paid-for services from Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy at the centre of a storm over how Facebook data was used in political campaigns.

 

"The investigation found no evidence that Leave.EU received donations or paid-for services from Cambridge Analytica for its referendum campaigning and found that the relationship did not develop beyond initial scoping work," it said.

 

Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica had previously denied working together on the Brexit campaign. Leave.EU was not the officially designated "leave" campaign group during the referendum.

 

"The Electoral Commission went big game fishing and found a few 'aged' dead sardines on the beach. So much for the big conspiracy!" Banks said. "What a shambles, we will see them in court."

 

($1 = 0.7398 pounds)

 

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge/Paul Sandle)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-05-11

[Jonnapat]

What about the offence of repeatedly lying to the British  electorate. 

[Krataiboy]

But it's perfectly OK for a Hungarian-American billionaire investor to pour 400 million dollars into the ongoing campaign to undermine the Brexit referendum decision?

 

Beam me up, Scottie.

[sirineou]

3 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

But it's perfectly OK for a Hungarian-American billionaire investor to pour 400 million dollars into the ongoing campaign to undermine the Brexit referendum decision?

 

Beam me up, Scottie.

 As long as it is done within the existing framework of rules and regulations. otherwise he should also be fined . 

Are you suggesting that you have evidence that such "Hungarian -American" has broken the spending rules and is not being prosecuted for it? Or are you just whistling Dixie?

  

[ResandePohm]

16 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

But it's perfectly OK for a Hungarian-American billionaire investor to pour 400 million dollars into the ongoing campaign to undermine the Brexit referendum decision?

 

Beam me up, Scottie.

You are Trolling. It is not who gives funds or how much is given to a campaign. It is how that organisartion uses and disposes of those funds.

 

In this case Leave EU broke the rules and got fined and have now been reported to the Police by the Electoral Commission for illegal activity. What they did is tantamount to cheating.

Edited May 12, 2018 by ResandePohm

[eliotness]

So the Remoan campaign continues.  What about the leaflets sent to every house by  Cameron just before the " deadline ' trying to convince everyone to vote remain.  The People have voted, end of story !

[Krataiboy]

7 minutes ago, ResandePohm said:

You are Trolling. It is not who gives funds or how much is given to a campaign. It is how that organisartion uses and disposes of those funds.

 

In this case Leave EU broke the rules and got fined and have now been reported to the Police by the Electoral Commission for illegal activity. What they did is tantamount to cheating.

Phooey. Soros made a billion dollars in a day when he broke the Bank of England in 1992.  Now he is trying to keep us in an EU a majority have voted to leave. For the Remainers to take this man's money is far more despicable than the technical breach of the rules by the Leave camp.

[ResandePohm]

5 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Phooey. Soros made a billion dollars in a day when he broke the Bank of England in 1992.  Now he is trying to keep us in an EU a majority have voted to leave. For the Remainers to take this man's money is far more despicable than the technical breach of the rules by the Leave camp.

Phooy on yourself. You expect remainers to accept the referendum vote which was marginal being won by a margin of only 2.9 % which statistically is well within the margins of error. This was with Brexit campaigners cheating and breaking the rules to gain an advantage. And who funded the Brexit campaign? Sir you have no morals!

[sirineou]

8 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Phooey. Soros made a billion dollars in a day when he broke the Bank of England in 1992.  Now he is trying to keep us in an EU a majority have voted to leave. For the Remainers to take this man's money is far more despicable than the technical breach of the rules by the Leave camp.

 Why talk about an actual brake of the law when we can talk about your perceived wrongdoing?

[bristolboy]

7 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

But it's perfectly OK for a Hungarian-American billionaire investor to pour 400 million dollars into the ongoing campaign to undermine the Brexit referendum decision?

 

Beam me up, Scottie.

400 million dolllars? What fake news source provided you with that ridiculous number? The real number was 400,000 pounds. And it was legal

.George Soros defends £400,000 donation to pro-EU campaign

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/11/george-soros-defends-400000-donation-pro-eu-campaign/

[bristolboy]

6 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Phooey. Soros made a billion dollars in a day when he broke the Bank of England in 1992.  Now he is trying to keep us in an EU a majority have voted to leave. For the Remainers to take this man's money is far more despicable than the technical breach of the rules by the Leave camp.

He didn't break the Bank of England. He just bet that it couldn't keep artificially support the overvalued rate of the pound. Blame the Tories for that misguided policy.  And I notice you have nothing to say about remainers accepting  illegal aid from a company owned by an American supporter of Trump.

[William C F Pierce]

17 hours ago, sirineou said:

 As long as it is done within the existing framework of rules and regulations. otherwise he should also be fined . 

Are you suggesting that you have evidence that such "Hungarian -American" has broken the spending rules and is not being prosecuted for it? Or are you just whistling Dixie?

  

 

This Land of the Free duo refuse to go to London to answer questions over their so called involvement in Brexit. Yet if this Land of the Free wants to prosecute an autistic English boy for hacking. It applies for his extradition through the courts in the UK. As they are pals of Trump they probably think no-one would believe them. When it comes to foreign interference in elections both the Russians and Americans are at it.

[Krataiboy]

22 hours ago, ResandePohm said:

Phooy on yourself. You expect remainers to accept the referendum vote which was marginal being won by a margin of only 2.9 % which statistically is well within the margins of error. This was with Brexit campaigners cheating and breaking the rules to gain an advantage. And who funded the Brexit campaign? Sir you have no morals!

Still tasting those sour grapes? Get over it. You lost, despite the lying, twisted efforts of the Remain leaders to scare the British people into voting for continued enslavement to the globalist EU.  When it comes to the moral high ground, you have nowhere to look but up.

[Krataiboy]

16 hours ago, bristolboy said:

400 million dolllars? What fake news source provided you with that ridiculous number? The real number was 400,000 pounds. And it was legal

.George Soros defends £400,000 donation to pro-EU campaign

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/02/11/george-soros-defends-400000-donation-pro-eu-campaign/

Apologies. Must make sure I'm wearing my reading glasses next time! But my objections stand, irrespective of the amount.

[bristolboy]

12 minutes ago, Krataiboy said:

Apologies. Must make sure I'm wearing my reading glasses next time! But my objections stand, irrespective of the amount.

But as for the   illegal contribution to the Brexit cause of Robert Mercer, an American,  you're fine with that.

Edited May 13, 2018 by bristolboy

[Krataiboy]

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

But as for the   illegal contribution to the Brexit cause of Robert Mercer, an American,  you're fine with that.

How much money did Mercer inject into the Leave campaign?

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

How much money did Mercer inject into the Leave campaign?

How much foreign influence is too much foreign influence?

 

I say any at all.

 

What do you say?

 

[bristolboy]

8 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

How much money did Mercer inject into the Leave campaign?

He donated the services of Cambridge Analytica

"The US billionaire who helped bankroll Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency played a key role in the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, the Observer has learned.

It has emerged that Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire, who helped to finance the Trump campaign and who was revealed this weekend as one of the owners of the rightwing Breitbart News Network, is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage. He directed his data analytics firm to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook – a donation of services that was not declared to the electoral commission."

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/us-billionaire-mercer-helped-back-brexit

Whilst no monetary value was offered for Cambridge's services, Vote leave paid a total of 2.7 million pounds for similar work elsewhere. It's overwhelmingly likely that the Cambridge contribution would be much bigger in monetary terms than the contribution from Soros.

[Krataiboy]

13 hours ago, bristolboy said:

He donated the services of Cambridge Analytica

"The US billionaire who helped bankroll Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency played a key role in the campaign for Britain to leave the EU, the Observer has learned.

It has emerged that Robert Mercer, a hedge-fund billionaire, who helped to finance the Trump campaign and who was revealed this weekend as one of the owners of the rightwing Breitbart News Network, is a long-time friend of Nigel Farage. He directed his data analytics firm to provide expert advice to the Leave campaign on how to target swing voters via Facebook – a donation of services that was not declared to the electoral commission."

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/us-billionaire-mercer-helped-back-brexit

Whilst no monetary value was offered for Cambridge's services, Vote leave paid a total of 2.7 million pounds for similar work elsewhere. It's overwhelmingly likely that the Cambridge contribution would be much bigger in monetary terms than the contribution from Soros.

So, unlike Soros, he didn't actually donate any money at all. Thanks for making that clear.

[Krataiboy]

18 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

How much foreign influence is too much foreign influence?

 

I say any at all.

 

What do you say?

 

Depends what you mean by "influence". Hard to define. Money isn't.

[stevenl]

On 5/12/2018 at 1:56 PM, Krataiboy said:

Phooey. Soros made a billion dollars in a day when he broke the Bank of England in 1992.  Now he is trying to keep us in an EU a majority have voted to leave. For the Remainers to take this man's money is far more despicable than the technical breach of the rules by the Leave camp.

Which has nothing to do with this.

 

They broke the rules and got fined, so you start moaning about others, even though they apparently did follow the rules.

[bristolboy]

5 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

So, unlike Soros, he didn't actually donate any money at all. Thanks for making that clear.

Tell that to the tax people. Services rendered are money. It's nonsense to suggest otherwise. And the way you figure out what it's worth is what they charge other people for the same services. This is so basic I can't believe you don't actually understand this.

[Krataiboy]

4 hours ago, bristolboy said:

Tell that to the tax people. Services rendered are money. It's nonsense to suggest otherwise. And the way you figure out what it's worth is what they charge other people for the same services. This is so basic I can't believe you don't actually understand this.

So what value did the "tax people" put on Mercer's alleged input.

[Chomper Higgot]

16 hours ago, Krataiboy said:

Depends what you mean by "influence". Hard to define. Money isn't.

Money is not influence.

 

You’re ‘avin’ a laarf!

[Krataiboy]

6 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Money is not influence.

 

You’re ‘avin’ a laarf!

You are taking what I said out of context. My point was "influence" is hard to quantify in financial terms, whereas money obviously is not.

Edited May 15, 2018 by Krataiboy