EU-leave campaign group fined, faced with police probe for breaking election rules

Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-17 20:38:56|Editor: Yurou
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LONDON, July 17 (Xinhua) -- The group that campaigned for leaving the European Union (EU) during the 2016 referendum was facing an investigation by London's Metropolitan Police after an inquiry revealed it had broken strict electoral laws.

The Electoral Commission (EC) imposed a fine of 61,000 pounds (81,000 U.S. dollars) on the leading campaign group on the Brexit side, Vote Leave, saying its investigation found significant evidence of joint working between the group and another campaign group, BeLeave.

The commission said that 675,000 pounds (894,000 U.S. dollars) spent by BeLeave should have been declared by Vote Leave. It meant, said EC, that Vote Leave had exceeded its legal spending limit of 7 million pounds (9.3 million U.S. dollars) by almost 500,000 pounds (662,000 U.S. dollars).

The Electoral Commission is the official watchdog overseeing elections in Britain.

The EC report said Vote Leave had returned an incomplete and inaccurate spending report, with one large amount reported incorrectly, and invoices missing for some of its spending.

Darren Grimes, the founder of the BeLeave campaign group, was found to have committed two offences and has been fined 20,000 pounds (26,500 U.S. dollars), the report added.

"Mr Grimes spent more than 675,000 pounds (894,000 U.S. dollars) on behalf of BeLeave, a non-registered campaigner that had a spending limit of 10,000 pounds (13,225 U.S. dollars). Further, he wrongly reported that same spending as his own," said the report.

"The commission has now referred both Mr. David Halsall, the responsible person for Vote Leave, and Mr. Grimes to the Metropolitan Police in relation to false declarations of campaign spending," said the EC in its statement Tuesday.

Vote Leave described the EC report as wholly inaccurate and said the report was politically motivated.

The Vote Leave campaign won the contest to be the official Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the EU.

It was fronted by two leading Brexit campaigners, former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and environment secretary Michael Gove.

The decision of the EC will not lead to a re-run of the referendum which resulted in a 52-48 split in leaving the EU. Parliament would have to pass a new referendum act if it wanted a new referendum.

Bob Posner, from the EC said: "We found substantial evidence that the two groups worked to a common plan, did not declare their joint working and did not adhere to the legal spending limits. These are serious breaches of the laws put in place by Parliament to ensure fairness and transparency at elections and referendums."

Posner said Vote Leave had resisted the investigation from the start and refused to cooperate and forced the commission to use legal powers to compel it to provide evidence.

On his social media site Tuesday, Grimes said Grimes said it was incredible he had been fined "on the basis of the wrong box being ticked on an application form. He said he had been interviewed by the Electoral Commission during two previous investigations and had never been "provided with particulars" of the allegation that he had worked on a "common plan" with Vote Leave.

A Vote Leave spokesman said the report contained a number of false accusations and incorrect assertions that are wholly inaccurate. It said Vote Leave had repeatedly made it clear they were willing to be interviewed by the EC.

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