Pro-Brexit campaign group may have broken spending rules, former CEO says

 

A supporter attends a Vote Leave event outside the Chelsea Flower Show in London, Britain May 28, 2016. REUTERS/Neil Hall/Files

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Electoral Commission is preparing to find the official campaign to leave the European Union guilty of breaking election law during the 2016 referendum, according to the former chief executive of the group.

 

Matthew Elliott, former chief executive of Vote Leave, said the Electoral Commission had concluded in a draft investigation that Vote Leave exceeded spending limits.

 

But Elliott told Sky News the Electoral Commission had committed a "huge breach of natural justice" by only listening to "the fantasists", alleging that the watchdog had not listened to Vote Leave's version of events.

 

This follows allegations by a former employee of Vote Leave that the group made a donation of 625,000 pounds ($826,250.00) to another Brexit campaign group, BeLeave, meant it violated spending rules because the groups worked together.

 

"Their 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," Elliott told Sky News.

 

The Electoral Commission said in a statement that Vote Leave had taken the "unusual step" of going public with the findings of its draft report.

 

"The Commission will give due consideration to the representations made," the commission said. "We will then, at the earliest opportunity, publish a thorough and detailed closing report in order to provide a full and balanced account to the public and to parliament."

 

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

 

Britain's exit from the bloc will mark its biggest trading and foreign policy shift in almost half a century. But Prime Minister Theresa May has struggled to unite pro- and anti-Brexit camps in her cabinet and party around a plan for future trade with the EU.

 

($1 = 0.7564 pounds)

 

(Reporting By Andrew MacAskill; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-04

 

"Their 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," Elliott told Sky New

 

It’s not quite as simple as that though is it?

 

Leave have colluded with ‘BeLeave’ to break electoral law.

 

Breaking the law is one thing, collusion in breaking the law is an entirely different matter.

Read Guido Fawkes' website. He provides details that the Remain campaign did exactly the same, by giving donations to 5 organisations.

 

This is another example of the Establishment trying to discredit the Referendum.

Edited July 5, 20188 yr by terryw

20 minutes ago, terryw said:

Read Guido Fawkes' website. He provides details that the Remain campaign did exactly the same, by giving donations to 5 organisations.

 

This is another example of the Establishment trying to discredit the Referendum.

But but but ...

 

Another example of the Brexit campaign telling lies and ignoring the law.

23 minutes ago, terryw said:

Read Guido Fawkes' website. He provides details that the Remain campaign did exactly the same, by giving donations to 5 organisations.

 

This is another example of the Establishment trying to discredit the Referendum.

This is an example of Brexiteers believing <deleted> posted by some bloke on his own website while ignoring the findings of an Electoral Commission investigation.

 The findings should be slapped on the side of a bus and driven around the north a convoy of deceit could be started with the 350m NHS bus.

Boris, Gove and gang declining to comment as usual.  Made all the main news channels yesterday  and they are bang to rights over this.  However nothing much will happen, the damage is done now and like Cambridge Analytica, there will be some banging on the desk and then it will conveniently get slipped under the carpet.