Troubled Electoral Commission faces calls to be abolished after High Court ruled they gave dodgy advice to referendum campaigners
Campaigners who won the High Court challenge against the Commission said they find themselves in an 'Alice in Wonderland situation'
THE troubled elections watchdog faced calls to be abolished last night after the High Court ruled they gave dodgy advice to referendum campaigners.
A judge ruled the Electoral Commission’s guidance to Vote Leave over donations was actually unlawful. Last night furious Brexit campaigners blasted the bungling officials.
Ex-Vote Leave boss Matthew Elliott hit out: “We find ourselves in a complete Alice in Wonderland situation.
“Vote Leave asked for, and received, the Electoral Commission’s advice.
“We followed that advice.”
Campaigners have won a High Court challenge against the Electoral Commission over election spending by Vote Leave in the run-up to the EU referendum.
The Good Law Project (GLP) brought a judicial review against the commission, arguing it failed in its duty to regulate the referendum process ahead of the historic vote in June 2016.
In a ruling on Friday, Mr Justice Leggatt said the commission had “misinterpreted” the definition of referendum expenses in relation to the Vote Leave campaign.
The judge said Vote Leave paid £620,000 to Canadian online advertising firm AggregateIQ (AIQ) at the request of another leave campaigner, Darren Grimes, in the days before the referendum.
This put Vote Leave over its £7 million election spending limit by almost £500,000.
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GLP launched the case in October last year, after the Electoral Commission concluded there were “no reasonable grounds to suspect” any incorrect reporting of campaign spending or donations by VoteLeave.
However, the commission later opened an investigation into the spending of Vote Leave and Mr Grimes and concluded in July that both had incorrectly reported their spending.
Vote Leave was fined £61,000 and Mr Grimes was handed a £20,000 fine by the commission, which referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police.
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