Criminality and the Referendum

The story of the criminal cheating on the Vote Leave campaign is long and complex, and there seems to be a ground rush effect as the election approaches. The issues are breach of personal privacy laws, over spending, covering up the overspending. It is possible that there have been breaches of the transparency rules, and that some money came from prohibited foreign sources. Here are some links and notes.

The Money

1. Adam Ramsey of Open Democracy heralds the involvement of the CPS on twitter. Nov 1 2019
2. At Open Democracy, Johnson and Cummings under fire as police hand criminal evidence on Vote Leave to prosecution agency, they say, “After 16-month investigation, Met Police refer Vote Leave to the CPS for possible criminal charges. But will the timing of the election mean further delay?” Nov 1 2019
3. Revealed: how loopholes allowed pro-Brexit campaign to spend ‘as much as necessary to win’ from Open Democracy
4. Vote Leave broke spending limits on industrial scale, says former staffer at the Guardian
5. The Crime of The Century: A Post Referendum Chronology from Brexit Shambles
6. And once again, Open Democracy and the High Court’s verdict, that if the referendum had not been advisory they would have ordered it to be rerun.
7. Wikipedia also has a page on this.  Allegations of unlawful campaigning in the 2016 EU referendum.

The Data

1. The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked, the big one, they, the Guardian say, “A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose? by Carole Cadwalladr.
2. The Vote Leave scandal, one year on: ‘the whole thing was traumatic’ again, the Guardian, “A year after revealing that the official leave campaign broke electoral law, Shahmir Sanni assesses the impact on politics – and on himself” and Chris Wylie’s whistleblower story,
3. Cambridge Analytica a year on: ‘a lesson in institutional failure’ again by Carole Cadwalladr.

Fake News, Russia and the cover up

1. Dominic Grieve calls for release of report on Russian meddling, Intelligence and security committee chair says dossier has facts ‘germane’ to voters.
2. Claims No 10 ‘sitting on’ Russian interference report from the BBC 1/11/2019
3. General election: Boris Johnson accused of suppressing secret report on Russian meddling in Brexit vote and UK polls from the Indy, Investigation by a committee of MPs concluded two weeks ago – but Downing Street won’t say if it will be published before election.
4. Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Interim Report: 5 Russian influence in political campaigns, by the House of Commons DCMS select committee.
5. A twitter thread by Ian Lucas MP, on the December cover up.
6. The denouement of the Cadwalladr vs Banks libel case reported in the Guardian. “Arron Banks loses two of three challenges to failed libel action against Carole Cadwalladr” although Cadwalladr had to pay some of Bank’s costs. The judgment is published at judiciary.uk.

Justice

1. Wilson & Ors , R (On the Application Of) v The Prime Minister [2019] EWCA Civ 304, the judicial review of the Referendum; Court of Appeal. The we i.e. the courts can’t interfere because the referendum was advisory, it’s down to Parliament to do so. The Independent reports on the case. Also an article in the Guardian summarising the plaintiff’s case.
2. The extent of Russian backed fraud means the referendum is invalid by Ewan McGaughy at LSE’s Brexit Blog, published Nov 2018, who notes Bank’s failure to sue those who made the allegations and
3. Investigation into payments made to Better for the Country and Leave.EU by the Electoral Commission updated in April 2020 when the NCA found no evidence to proceed with a prosecution

Image Credit: … the featured image is now one posted by the Moscow Times, featuring Moscow gold. The picture of Johnson comes from the FT.