One MP took no time to grill the government on what it planned to do about the democratic deficiencies uncovered by the Electoral Commission
This morning the Electoral Commission announced it would be reporting Vote Leave to the police after finding “significant evidence” the campaign had broken the rules during the 2016 referendum.
And Labour backbencher Chuka Umunna was not pleased, accusing the government to house some of those responsible for the “foul play” in its Cabinet.
Vote Leave – the official pro-Brexit campaign – had as its main faces no other than the current Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, and the recently abdicated foreign secretary, Boris Johnson.
Labour’s Streatham MP and Open Britain spokesman, Umunna said in Parliament:
“Members of the Cabinet sat in an organisation which is being found to have flouted our democracy. Does this not all demonstrate that we need a full, urgent public inquiry into the Leave Campaign, given that it calls into question the legitimacy of the entire Brexit process?”
The former shadow business secretary went on to seemingly suggest Brexit should be abandoned altogether, as the small 4% advantage of the Out vote would have been influenced by this “contravention of natural justice”.
The minister responsible for the replies, Cabinet Office parliamentary secretary Chloe Smith MP, found the accusations clearly difficult to respond to, insisting instead she would not comment on an ongoing investigation.
An investigation by the electoral watchdog found that the campaign had coordinated with another group called BeLeave, which in turn had spent over £675,000 with a data collection firm called Aggregate IQ. The value was not declared and would have pushed the Vote Leave campaign’s legal spending to over £500,000 of it’s limit of £7 million.
Umunna was not alone in his call either. Senior Conservative MP, Sarah Wollaston, argued Vote Leave had been found “cheating” and that the referendum should therefore be re-run.
Labour MPs David Lammy, Chris Leslie and Julie Elliott too found that the referendum should be considered “null and void”.
The referendum can not legally be annulled due to over-spending as it was not subject to the Election Court. It could, however, be challenged in other courts on the grounds of human rights abuses or similar charges.
Joana Ramiro is a reporter for Left Foot Forward. You can follow her on Twitter for all sorts of rants here.
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