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A whistleblower who claims the official Vote Leave group broke campaign spending rules broke down in tears last night as he said a senior Downing Street aide forced him to come out to his family.

Shahmir Sanni who was a volunteer for Vote Leave, said his parents were not aware he was gay when Stephen Parkinson, Theresa May’s political secretary, released a statement saying he was once in a relationship with him.

And he claimed Mr Parkinson was aware that he was not out to his family when he issued the statement, first through the blog of Leave campaign chief Dominic Cummings and then to other reporters .

Mr Sanni wept as he told an audience at London’s Frontline Club: “It was f****** s***. I had to come out to my mum the day before yesterday.”

“You know what, he knew, he knew that I wasn’t out to my mum.”

(Image: AFP)

(Image: AFP)

He added: “Number 10, Dominic Cummings and Stephen Parkinson have stripped me of the most important conversation for me, to have with my mother and my sisters and my family.”

“I came out to my mum and she said to me, I love you no matter what and they’re doing it to shut you up. I was like thanks momma.”

A Number 10 source said: ”As I understand it, a personal statement drafted by Mr Parkinson was sent to media organisations who had requested a response from him given that they were intending to run stories.

"The statement was also shared with former colleagues of his at Vote Leave and it was circulated for information to a small number of people within Number 10.

"The statement having been posted on [former Vote Leave Dominic] Cummings’ blog was subsequently requested by another reporter, and a political member of Number 10 staff sent that on to the reporter saying 'this in the public domain but ... in case it’s helpful'.

"And that’s the long and short of it, it remains a personal statement and that is what was said in the email to that particular news organisation."

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

Information provided by Mr Sanni and fellow whistleblower Christopher Wylie provides grounds to suspect that the Vote Leave campaign broke electoral law during the 2016 EU referendum campaign, according to a legal opinion obtained by the men's lawyers.

And the opinion said there were "reasonable grounds" for the Electoral Commission to investigate the possibility of a conspiracy involving two senior members of the Leave campaign now working as advisers to Theresa May in 10 Downing Street.

The 50-page opinion obtained by Bindman's solicitors, acting on behalf of the two whistleblowers, called for an "urgent investigation" to establish whether a prosecution could be brought over allegations the campaign broke spending limits.

Mr Wylie will give evidence to the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee this morning.

(Image: AFP)

The allegations have all been denied by Vote Leave and its former officials, who reject all accusations of wrongdoing.

Witness statements and documents provided by the whistleblowers "strongly suggest" that a donation of almost £680,000 made by the campaign to a youth Brexit group called BeLeave was actually used for

the benefit of Vote Leave, to pay data firm Aggregate IQ for targeted messaging services, said the legal opinion, prepared by barristers from Matrix Chambers.

If this cash was recorded as Vote Leave expenditure, it would take the campaign's spending over the £7 million limit, establishing a "prima facie case" that electoral law has been breached.

There are "realistic prospects" that the group and official David Halsall might be convicted, said QCs Clare Montgomery and Helen Mountfield and barrister Ben Silverstone.

And they said there were "reasonable grounds" for the Electoral Commission to investigate whether any offences where committed "with the knowledge, assistance and agreement" of senior figures in Vote Leave, including Stephen Parkinson and Cleo Watson, who are now advisers to the Prime Minister, as well as the campaign director Dominic Cummings.

"Given the very close working relationships at all material times between Vote Leave and BeLeave, the way up which Mr Parkinson and Ms Watson supervised the work of the young BeLeave volunteers and that Vote Leave and BeLeave staff worked closely together on a daily basis, in the same office, throughout the referendum campaign, it can be properly inferred that Mr Parkinson and Mr Watson must have known about BeLeave's campaign activity, of which the AIQ targeted messaging was a significant part," said the opinion.

"In these circumstances, there are certainly reasonable grounds for the Commission to use its powers... to investigate whether any election offences committed by Vote Leave and Mr Halsall were committed with the knowledge, assistance and agreement of other senior figures/officers in Vote Leave, including Mr Parkinson and Ms Watson."