“Reasonable grounds to suspect” Leave.EU broke law – Electoral Commission
News just in:
The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into spending at the European Union referendum by the campaign group Leave.EU, it has announced.
The Commission says the investigation will focus on whether the Brexit-supporting campaign took “impermissible” donations and said there were “reasonable grounds to suspect that potential offences” may have been committed by the campaign…
“The investigation is focused on whether one or more donations – including of services – accepted by Leave.EU was impermissible; and whether Leave.EU’s spending return was complete.” [The Independent]
Leave.EU was the Arron Banks / Nigel Farage campaign body during the European referendum campaign last year. It has already been fined £50,000 for breaking the law over spam text messages. Arron Banks’s registered business address is also the address used for 11 different pro-Brexit organisations which were struck off by the regulators for not complying with the law.
The Electoral Commission’s reference to its investigation covering services given to the campaign suggests it will include Cambridge Analytica, which has been in the spotlight for the apparent difference between what it said it did for the referendum and what the official expense returns said.
Fines mean nothing to people this rich. True justice and deterrence needs the offenders to face bans on holding office, and jail time like any other criminal.
For organisations this large and well funded, fines that may seem mind-boggling to the man on the street are just the cost of doing business. To change that, they must be blocked from the offices that they are stealing, and must face real punishment.