New board raises concerns that up to £500,000 was not properly declared

The new board of the People’s Vote campaign has asked the Electoral Commission to urgently review between £300,000 and £500,000 in donations it believes were not properly declared under the group’s previous leadership.

It is the latest development in the six-week row that has engulfed the group campaigning for a second EU referendum and could lead to an official investigation covering donations made around the time of the European elections in June.

If the commission finds the rules were broken, it has the power to levy a fine and ask the police to make a further inquiry, as the body did when it accused Vote Leave of breaching spending limits in the final stages of the 2016 referendum campaign.

Former staff, however, say no rules were broken.

People’s Vote has been mired in crisis since the beginning of the general election campaign, after a boardroom coup led by the financial PR chief Roland Rudd resulted in the firing of the campaign director, James McGrory, who was a former aide to Nick Clegg, and the communications director, Tom Baldwin, who has previously advised Ed Miliband.

Staff immediately walked out with the backing of high-profile supporters, including Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson, and the dispute has not been resolved, leaving the organisation collapsing in on itself while the election campaign continues.

Rudd was forced to quit as chairman, but the interim management of People’s Vote initiated a compliance review last month, which uncovered the potential discrepancies. The new leadership has been in contact with the commission, which in turn has indicated there could be sufficient justification for an investigation.

A People’s Vote spokesman said: “People’s Vote is asking the Electoral Commission to look into possible non-disclosure of donations under the organisation’s previous executive management.

“In the course of this review, we became extremely concerned donations may not have been declared to the Electoral Commission. We immediately made the commission aware of this.”

The commission said it was aware of the request and was examining the evidence, although it had not yet decided whether to launch a formal investigation.

A spokesperson for the former staff of the People’s Vote campaign said they were confident they had always complied with Electoral Commission requirements, and that donations made during the European elections were small, online donations.

“It is deeply disappointing that Roland Rudd is once again seeking to damage the People’s Vote by smearing the team who built it in a desperate attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the shambles he has turned this once great campaign into,” the spokesperson said.

One of the donations is a six-figure sum given by the businessman Julian Dunkerton, and most are thought to be substantial amounts from wealthy individuals.

The money is believed to have been already spent on campaigning, but because campaign groups are covered by finance rules during an election, they should have been declared to the commission.

Both sides of the People’s Vote row are continuing to campaign for a second referendum, but they have struggled for national attention. People’s Vote says activists are continuing to organise local events and the campaign has raised £700,000 in three weeks.

Meanwhile, on Friday evening, those who left People’s Vote are holding a rally at the Mermaid Theatre in London, where Tony Blair and Michael Heseltine are due to speak.