Police drop investigation into Nigel Farage's and Arron Banks' Leave.EU

Arron Banks, Chairman of Leave.EU
PA
Tim Baker13 September 2019

The Metropolitan Police has dropped its investigation into Nigel Farage and Arron BanksBrexit campaign group Leave.EU.

The force said some technical breaches of electoral law were committed by Leave.EU in its spending return for its referendum campaign but there is "insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal investigation"

Investigations into the financial arrangements of Vote Leave - which was run by Dominic Cummings and involved Boris Johnson and Michael Gove – and BeLeave are still ongoing.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “On August 5 the Metropolitan Police submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for Early Investigative Advice in relation to the Leave.EU investigation and this advice has now been received.

“It is clear that whilst some technical breaches of electoral law were committed by Leave.EU in respect of the spending return submitted for their campaign, there is insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal investigation.

“The investigation into the spending returns of Vote Leave and BeLeave remains ongoing.”

Dominic Cumming's Vote Leave is still be investigated
REUTERS

Arron Banks, Chairman of Leave.EU, said in a lengthy statement: “We have been informed by the Metropolitan Police that they will be taking no action as a result of the investigation referred by the Electoral commission into the Leave.EU campaign and Ms Liz Bilney.

“They have concluded that the Leave.EU campaign did not break the law during the 2016 referendum.

“The disgraceful political collusion between the Electoral Commission & the Damian Collins “remain biased” DCMS committee and a number of leading Remain MPs, demonstrate a serious abuse of public office and we will be demanding a full public inquiry investigation into their actions.

“We will be writing to the Prime Minister today demanding a public enquiry into the actions of the Electoral commission.

“I am today calling for the resignation of Damian Collins and the CEO of Electoral commission as a result of today’s news.

“The Electoral Commission have serious questions to answer about political bias and whether it is fit for purpose as a regulator.

“The management board is overseen by third-rate politicos and people who have shown clear political bias. The Chairman himself described Brexit as a ‘collection of Eurosceptic nonsense’ and one of the EC board called for a second referendum!

“The investigation has taken a huge personal toll on Liz Bilney, her family and the harassment and lies perpetrated by anti-Brexit MPs is disgraceful.

“MP’s like Stephen Kinnock & Ian Lavery should apologise to Liz and the 1.5 million supporters of Leave.EU they tried to smear.

“During the last 2 years, the Metropolitan Police have been professional and thorough.

“They spent many hours investigating our case and they should be commended for doing a difficult job in a difficult political climate.

“They remained impartial and operated with complete integrity.

“We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for giving her officers her full support at all times.”

Commander Alex Murray, of Central Specialist Crime, said: “It was right to investigate the allegation, however following detailed enquiries it became apparent that the nature of potential breaches of the regulations, the criminal standard of proof required in court and the actions taken by Leave.EU to adhere to the regulations, mean that it is now appropriate to take no further action.”

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