By Ben Kerrigan
Campaign group Leave.EU has been fined £70,000- by the UK’s Electoral Commission, following a probe into its funding and spending during the Brexit referendum.
The group backed by insurance millionaire, Aaron Banks, and former UKIP leader, Michael Farage, was fined for breaches of election law during the 2016 referendum . A senior figure has also been referred to the police.
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The Electoral Commission said the group – which was separate from the official pro-Brexit group Vote Leave – failed to report at least £77,380 it spent. The Commission condemned the failure as “disappointing” a “key player” in the referendum had been unable to follow the rules.
Leave.EU co-founder Arron Banks reacted defiantly to the ruling, branding it a “politically motivated attack”. Responding to the Electoral Commission’s findings, he said: “What a shambles, we will see them in court.”
“The rules we enforce were put in place by Parliament to ensure transparency and public confidence in our democratic processes,” said Bob Posner, Electoral Commission director of political finance and regulation.
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“It is therefore disappointing that Leave.EU, a key player in the EU referendum, was unable to abide by these rules,” a statement from the Commission read.
The commission’s investigation also 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.”
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The watchdog said Leave.EU had exceeded the spending limit for “non-party registered campaigners” by at least 10% by failing to include at least £77,380 in its spending return – it added the overspend “may well have been considerably higher than that”.
It did not include services Leave.EU had received from a US campaign strategy firm, Goddard Gunster, “inaccurately reported” three loans – including who had provided them – and did not provide invoices or receipts for 97 separate payments, which totalled £80,224.
The Commission revealed that it has also referred Leave.EU chief executive Liz Bilney to the police, stating that it had reasonable grounds to suspect she had committed criminal offences.
Bob Posner, the Commission’s director of political finance and regulation, said it was “disappointing” that Leave.EU had been “unable to abide by these rules”.
“The level of fine we have imposed has been constrained by the cap on the Commission’s fines,” he added.
The investigation examined whether Leave.EU had received any services from Cambridge Analytica which should have been declared on its spending return. evidence that the group received donations or paid-for services from the political consultancy.
Leave.EU’s relationship with the controversial firm “did not develop beyond initial scoping work”, according to the Commission.
Leave.EU are not the only group to fall foul of spending rules in the EU Referendum campaign. The Lib Dems were fined £18,000 by the Commission last year while the official Vote Leave group are still under investigation. The pro-EU European Movement UK and UKIP have also been fined over their referendum spending.
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