Electoral Commission launches review into Brexit Party funding

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage
PA
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The Electoral Commission will visit the offices of the Brexit Party tomorrow as part of a review in to how it receives funding.

A spokesman said Tuesday's visit was part of its "active oversight and regulation" of donations.

The move comes after former prime minister Gordon Brown called for an investigation to be carried out into the finances of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party.

Mr Brown, speaking in Glasgow on Monday, said that democracy would continue to be undermined if payments to the party were not declared.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown called for a probe into the finances of the Brexit Party
Getty Images

An Electoral Commission spokesman said: "The Brexit Party, like all registered political parties, has to comply with laws that require any donation it accepts of over £500 to be from a permissible source.

"It is also subject to rules for reporting donations, loans, campaign spending and end of year accounts. We have already been talking to the party about these issues.

"As part of our active oversight and regulation of these rules, we are attending the Brexit Party's office tomorrow to conduct a review of the systems it has in place to receive funds, including donations over £500 that have to be from the UK only.

"If there's evidence that the law may have been broken, we will consider that in line with our Enforcement Policy."

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has accused Mr Brown of a "disgusting smear".

The former prime minister challenged the Electoral Commission and the European Parliament to indicate whether they are investigating the party, or say whether questions over dubious payments had been answered, ahead of the European elections on Thursday.

Mr Brown said: "The Electoral Commission and the European Parliament should now investigate the finances of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party.

"Democracy is undermined when we have undeclared, unreported, untraceable payments being made to the Brexit Party.

"We have the potential for underhand and under-the-counter payments being made.

"You know the history of this - Leave.EU, Nigel Farage and Arron Banks' campaign is now under criminal investigation.

"There's three investigations - one by the National Crime Agency, one by the Met Police and one by the Information Commissioner.

"Arron Banks, the lead funder of Leave.EU and the friend of Nigel Farage has been under investigation - he has made contacts with Russia. We don't know where his money comes from.

"And yet we find out last week that he has given £450,000 in payments to support Nigel Farage, while Nigel Farage was in a public office in the European Parliament, who should have been declaring the payments that he was receiving from anyone to avoid any conflicts of interest."

Mr Brown raised concerns over the method of payment used to process donations by supporters of the party.

Nigel Farage speaks during the Brexit Party's European election campaign
AP

He said: "Now we find the Brexit Party that has been formed is not a party, it's actually a private company. It doesn't have members, it has shareholders."

Mr Farage accused the former premier of an "absolutely disgusting smear" against his party.

"This from the man who was part of a Labour Party who, through Lord Levy, were making a lot of big donors members of the House of Lords," Mr Farage said on a campaign visit to Exeter.

"How dare he? Most of our money has been raised by people giving £25 to become registered supporters and nearly 110,000 of them now have done that.

"Frankly, this smacks of jealousy because the other parties simply can't do this.

"How open can we be? What you have got here are the conspiracy theorists doing their utmost to try and delegitimise what is the fastest-growing political movement this country has ever seen."

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said: "The Brexit Party, like all registered political parties, has to comply with laws that require any donation it accepts of over £500 to be from a permissible source.

"It is also subject to rules for reporting donations, loans, campaign spending and end-of-year accounts.

"These rules are in place to ensure fairness and transparency of all political party finance.

"As part of our active oversight and regulation of these rules, we talk regularly to parties, including the Brexit Party, about ensuring they have robust systems in place so that they comply with the law.

"If we see evidence to suggest the rules have been broken, we will consider it in line with our enforcement policy."

Mr Farage told a rally of 1,000 supporters in Bolton on Monday evening the Brexit Party had come under a co-ordinated attack from Mr Brown and the media for alleged financial impropriety.

He said his party last week went to the Electoral Commission to show them the checks and methods used to ensure they are in line with electoral law, adding: "They gave us a clean bill of health."

Mr Farage said it was only after Mr Brown's speech the commission said they would visit the Brexit Party offices.

He added: "They are doing so on the basis of absolutely no evidence at all. They are doing so in an act of bad faith against what they told us to our faces last week.

"They are directly, politically interfering in a national election in this country. It's a disgrace."

Mr Farage said the board of the commission were all Remain supporters and it, along with the two party system, the House of Lords and the voting system, needed to be "looked at."

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