THE official Brexit campaign has been accused of breaking strict spending rules during the 2016 EU referendum.
Vote Leave, which was fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, allegedly breached the £7 million spending limit.
A preliminary investigation by the Electoral Commission concluded that it donated £680,000 of cash to a smaller pro-Brexit group that was acting in “co-ordination” with it.
Matthew Elliott, the Vote Leave chief executive, admitted the breach, and said the watchdog’s report had also found three other potential breaches of electoral law.
Elliott said he was contesting the claims, which is why he decided to go public.
In an interview with the BBC, he said the commission had “listened to one side of the story”.
“We offered to go in for interviews, both at board level and at staff level,” he said.
“They haven’t accepted any interviews from our side.”
Elliott said he thought Vote Leave had “acted both within the letter of the law and also the spirit of the law”, and that it was perfectly legitimate that they would “work alongside other groups and encourage them and encourage their activities”.
Chuka Umunna, a back-bench Labour MP who supports staying in the European Union, said: “In an EU referendum where there was a 4% victory for Vote Leave, it overspent by 10%. Very serious implications.”
According to Elliott, Vote Leave is also accused of making an inaccurate return of campaign expenditure, missing invoices and receipts, and failing to comply with a statutory notice. Elliott told the BBC he had submitted a 500-page dossier to the Electoral Commission rebutting the claims.
The watchdog said it was surprised that Vote Leave had chosen to go public before its investigation had concluded.
Whistleblower Christoper Wylie accused Elliot of spin: “Brexit is now a crime scene. Vote Leave cheated and is trying to use the BBC to bury the fact that it had to commit crimes in order to ‘win’”.
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