Political

UKIP faces £367,697 bill after court rules magistrate wrong to levy small ‘fine’

Good news all in all for both the Electoral Commission and for the laws regulating donations to political parties with the decision today by an Appeal Court to overturn a previous strange ruling by a magistrate in the case of a series of donations to UKIP that the Electoral Commission had investigated and decided broke the law.

The donations, from an Alan Bown, totalled £367,697 and were given by him personally, despite not being on the electoral register at the time. This made them impermissible. Until this case, everyone’s interpretation of the law had been that, for better or worse, it is completely black and white in this regard. Either a donation is permissible, and can be kept, or it is impermissible, and is therefore forfeited in full.

That made the ruling by a magistrate when UKIP pursued this case very surprising. For the magistrate decided the donations were impermissible but ruled that only £18,481 should be forfeit. On reading the reports on the judgement I couldn’t work out the grounds on which that ruling could stand up to appeal and it looks like I was right because today the Appeal Court has ruled the full £367,697 must be forfeit.

The Electoral Commission’s Peter Wardle said:

Parliament decided that political parties should only be able to accept money from individuals if they are on a UK electoral register. This provides a straightforward test of whether they should accept money or not. They simply need to check the electoral register. The United Kingdom Independence Party did not take these simple steps.

 

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