Strategy During 2015, the group established a fake company to gain entry to a speech being given by Prime Minister
David Cameron at the
Confederation of British Industry where they heckled him and held banners stating "CBI = voice of Brussels". Cummings subsequently stated: "You think it is nasty? You ain’t seen nothing yet. These guys have failed the country, they are going to be under the magnifying glass. Tough shit ... It is going to be tough". The campaign also stated their intention to target and disrupt meetings of pro-EU organisations and companies. In a letter to the
Electoral Commission, Sir
Eric Pickles, the former Conservative cabinet minister, said he believed Vote Leave had disqualified itself from lead status in the referendum (which entitles the campaign to public funding) after it pledged to run a "nasty" campaign against opponents. as claims emerged that they were puppet organisations through which Vote Leave channelled money to circumvent spending restrictions.
George Eaton wrote, “[The] allegations bear the imprimatur of three senior barristers (
Clare Montgomery QC,
Helen Mountfield QC and
Ben Silverstone of
Matrix Chambers) who concluded that Vote Leave may have 'spent huge sums unlawfully', that there are 'grounds to suspect' that campaign director and former Michael Gove aide
Dominic Cummings “conspired to break the law” and that
Stephen Parkinson and fellow No. 10 aide
Cleo Watson may have 'conspired with others to commit offences'”. BeLeave was based inside the Vote Leave headquarters. On 14 September 2018, the
High Court of Justice found against the Electoral Commission, stating that its advice to Vote Leave and Darren Grimes had been incorrect, but confirming that the overspending had been illegal. Vote Leave, which claimed they would not have paid BeLeave without the advice, initially appealed against their fine, but withdrew the appeal in March 2019.
Post referendum campaign Noting the absence of post-victory celebrations,
Nick Cohen wrote in a
Guardian newspaper article that it reflected the fear of the two main leaders Johnson and Gove, both journalists, that they would be “found out.” He said that the Leave camp had no plan and provided a single simplistic answer to EU problems condemning the UK Statistics Authority as “stooges” and other experts as “corrupt liars in Brussels' pocket.” The campaign - a cross-party alliance of left and right-wing campaigners - had made promises on
immigration and the
National Health Service on which some politicians were backtracking.
Michael Dougan, Professor of European Law and
Jean Monnet Chair in EU Law at the
University of Liverpool, described the Vote Leave and other Leave campaigns as "one of the most dishonest political campaigns this country [the UK] has ever seen". In August 2016, the Electoral Reform Society published a highly critical report and called for a review of how such future events are run. Contrasting it unfavourably with the "well-informed grassroots" campaign for
Scottish independence, Chief Executive
Katie Ghose described it as "dire" with “glaring democratic deficiencies” which left voters bewildered. She noted a generally negative response to establishment figures with 29% of voters saying
David Cameron made them more likely to vote Leave whilst only 14% said he made them want to vote Remain. Looking ahead, the society called for an official organisation to highlight misleading claims and for
Ofcom to define the role broadcasters are expected to play.
Electoral law violations In November 2017, the Electoral Commission announced that it was reopening its investigation of Vote Leave's EU referendum spending. On 17 July 2018, it was announced that Vote Leave had been found guilty of breaking electoral law by overspending following testimony from three whistleblowers. Vote Leave was fined £61,000 and referred to the police. In October 2018, an article appeared on the political website
openDemocracy claiming that the criminal investigations into Vote Leave and
Leave.EU had not progressed, with a spokesman for a
Scotland Yard admitting that "there were issues and “political sensitivities” that had to be taken into account. On 14 September 2018, the High Court ruled that the advice given by the Electoral Commission to Vote Leave as requested misinterpreted EU referendum spending laws. An Electoral Commission spokesperson said it welcomed the court's "consideration of this aspect of electoral law" and said it had reached the same conclusion as a subsequent commission investigation, which resulted in fines being issued to Vote Leave and
Darren Grimes. Vote Leave appealed against the fine, maintaining that the donation to Grimes had been appropriately signed off by the Electoral Commission, but on 29 March 2019 they announced that the appeal had been dropped, citing a lack of financial resources as the reason. However, in July 2019, Grimes, having crowdfunded £90,000 for legal costs, won an appeal against the Electoral Commission. ==See also==