Boris Johnson leads Brexiteer backlash at 'ludicrous' Vote Leave spending claims

John Ashmore

Boris Johnson has hit back at "ludicrous" claims that the Vote Leave campaign breached spending rules during the EU referendum.



The Foreign Secretary hit out following allegations from pro-Brexit campaigner Shahmir Sanni that the group "cheated" by funnelling cash to a satellite campaign called BeLeave.

Mr Sanni said former Vote Leave official Stephen Parkinson - who is now Theresa May's political secretary - had directed him to move money from Vote Leave to Be Leave.

"In effect they used BeLeave to over-spend, and not just by a small amount… almost two thirds of a million pounds makes all the difference and it wasn’t legal," he told Channel 4.

But Mr Johnson hit back on Twitter last night, saying the allegations were "utterly ludicrous" and that the Brexiteers had won "fair and square".

Observer/C4 story utterly ludicrous, #VoteLeave won fair & square - and legally. We are leaving the EU in a year and going global #TakeBackControl #GlobalBritain — Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) March 24, 2018

Former Number 10 chief of staff Nick Timothy also joined in, tweeting that the Remain campaign had had the advantage of "the entire weight of the Whitehall machine" behind it.

Has everybody forgotten that the *entire* weight of the Whitehall machine was put behind the remain campaign? If the referendum was slanted it was in favour of continued EU membership. This is not going to stop Brexit. We are leaving the EU, and leaving next March. — Nick Timothy (@NickJTimothy) March 24, 2018