Nigel Farage’s anti-EU campaign was fined £70,000 for a series of offences (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

It is a big step to take legal action against the police, but I have joined a group of politicians in doing just that.

The issue is something which strikes at the heart of our democracy: politicians breaking the law to get the results they want – in this case, the UK leaving the European Union.

Those of us who have decided to action are not a group of Remoaners, trying to get the Brexit result overturned. We come from different political parties and from both Remain and Leave camps, but we are united in a deep dismay that our electoral laws were broken in what was the most important vote in this country for decades.



The law-breaking is not in doubt; the official regulator, the Electoral Commission, has fined two main pro-Brexit campaigns – Vote Leave and Leave.EU – and been strongly critical of both.


Vote Leave was fined £61,000 for breaking spending limits. This was the campaign which was fronted by several government ministers, including the man who is now the front-runner to be our next prime minister, Boris Johnson.

Vote Leave’s contempt for the law didn’t end there. It even refused to be interviewed by the Electoral Commission and destroyed key documents.

On the other end, Leave.EU – Nigel Farage’s anti-EU campaign – was fined even more (£70,000) for a series of offences including breaking its campaign spending limit, inaccurately reporting loans it had received and not being clear about who had provided the money. It also failed to declare services received from a US campaign organisation.

We’ve become used to Nigel Farage being on the receiving end of unexplained loans. He has been generously bank-rolled by the insurance tycoon Arron Banks, receiving nearly half a million pounds in the year after the referendum. Banks himself is under criminal investigation for his role in ‘multiple suspected offences’ within the Leave.EU campaign.

People who break the law should be held accountable and so far, that hasn’t happened.

This is not just a matter of campaign teams failing to keep track of invoices.

As the Electoral Commission said, both Vote Leave and Leave.EU ‘broke the electoral rules set out by Parliament to ensure fairness, confidence and legitimacy at an electoral event…’.

The regulator has done its job, investigating and fining both campaigns, and would have fined them more if it had had the power to do so –but it doesn’t end there. People who break the law should be held accountable and so far, that hasn’t happened.

Nearly a year ago, the Commission handed over more than 2,000 documents to the Metropolitan Police detailing why they believed serious offences had been committed by Vote Leave. Since then, there’s been nothing but silence.

The police have two things to consider; firstly, is there enough evidence? The answer is clearly yes.

Furthermore, is it in the public interest to prosecute? If you believe in the rule of law and the fairness of the democratic process of our country, then the answer to that must also be yes.

We are used to some political parties having much deeper pockets than others, as well as the two main parties being bank-rolled by wealthy individuals, corporations or trade unions. But during election periods, limits are set on how much can be spent.



When that breaks down, one of the pillars of our democracy crumbles.

Because it is not universal suffrage which upholds our democratic system, it is the rule of law. When it is broken, those responsible should be held accountable.

The police must take action against those who broke the law or explain why they are not doing so.

At the moment, that isn’t happening and we need to know why.

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