The elections watchdog has accused Vote Leave of breaching the official spending limit of £7m during the run-up to the EU referendum, according to the campaign’s former chief executive.

A preliminary investigation by the Electoral Commission concluded that Vote Leave, which was fronted by Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, should not have donated £680,000 of surplus cash to a smaller pro-Brexit group because the two were acting in coordination.

The admission was made by Matthew Elliott, who said he had been told that the commission had also found three other potential breaches of electoral law, prompting critics to say that the preliminary verdicts had “serious implications” for the referendum result.

The elections watchdog is in the latter stages of its inquiry and has passed its preliminary conclusions to Vote Leave so the campaign can respond to the accusations.

Elliott said Vote Leave was contesting the claims and had decided to go public, as it sent in its formal response to the commission investigation. In an interview with the BBC, he said he thought Vote Leave had “acted both within the letter of the law and also the spirit of the law”.

But Chuka Umunna, a backbench Labour MP who supports staying in the European Union, said: “So in an EU referendum where there was a 4% victory for Vote Leave, they overspent by 10%. Very serious implications.”

Whistleblowers had alleged that there was close coordination between Vote Leave and the student group BeLeave, which received the money. Both groups spent significant sums buying advertising on Facebook with the help of Canadian political consultancy and tech firm Aggregate IQ.

Shahmir Sanni, a former Vote Leave volunteer, told the Observer in March that official Brexit campaign had offered advice and assistance to BeLeave and helped it to decide where its cash would be spent, allegations he reported to the Electoral Commission. On Wednesday, Sanni said the preliminary conclusion vindicated his complaint: “If this is true, the evidence that I brought forward in March has been confirmed. Vote Leave used BeLeave to break electoral law.”

According to Elliott, Vote Leave is also accused of making an inaccurate return of campaign expenditure, missing invoices and receipts, and failing to comply with a statutory notice. Elliott told the BBC he had submitted a 500-page dossier to the Electoral Commission rebutting the claims.

The commission has the power of fining Vote Leave £20,000 for each breach of election law. It can refer to police the person responsible for drawing up the spending return if there is evidence to suggest they knowingly or recklessly submitted a return they knew to be false.



Vote Leave also attempted to accuse the election watchdog of following “a highly political agenda” when it briefed rightwing media overnight about its complaints, repeating the argument in appearances with the BBC and Sky News on Wednesday. Elliott said the commission had so far declined to interview senior Vote Leave figures.

The watchdog said it was surprised that Vote Leave had chosen to go public before its investigation had concluded. A spokesman said its normal process was to produce preliminary conclusions and invite responses.

“The commission has concluded its investigation and, having reached initial findings, provided Vote Leave with a 28-day period to make any further or new representations. That period ended on Tuesday 3 July.

“The unusual step taken by Vote Leave in sharing its views on the Electoral Commission’s initial findings does not affect the process set out in law.”

Gove defended Elliott’s actions, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I understand from the interviews Matthew Elliott has given that he vigorously contests some of what has been alleged in that report.” He said he expected a legal challenge if the commission’s final conclusion was that Vote Leave broke spending rules.



