The voting watchdog has fined a key organisation that pushed for Brexit some £70,000 for breaches of electoral rules committed during the 2016 referendum and referred one of its senior figures to police.
The Electoral Commission found that Leave.EU – the group backed by Nigel Farage and funded by Arron Banks – failed to include at least £77,380 in its spending return following the national vote.
It means that the organisation exceeding the legal spending limits ahead of the referendum, which saw the country back leaving the European Union.
The watchdog also referred a key figure in Leave.EU’s hierarchy to the Metropolitan Police due to “reasonable grounds to suspect” that criminal offences have occurred.
The Electoral Commission’s director of political finance, Bob Posner, said: “The rules we enforce were put in place by Parliament to ensure transparency and public confidence in our democratic processes.
“It is therefore disappointing that Leave.EU, a key player in the EU referendum, was unable to abide by these rules.
“Leave.EU exceeded its spending limit and failed to declare its funding and its spending correctly. These are serious offences. The level of fine we have imposed has been constrained by the cap on the Commission’s fines.”
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