The Electoral Commission has been accused of withholding documents from the Metropolitan Police about the conduct the Leave campaign during the 2016 referendum, prompting an extraordinary spat between the two organisations.

The Met has been challenged by MPs and campaigners over why it has not yet charged anyone in connection with the wrongdoing uncovered by the elections regulator into two of the organisations which campaigned for Brexit.

A Leave.EU official, Elizabeth Bilney, Darren Grimes who founded BeLeave and David Halsall an official from Vote Leave, were referred to the police in 2018 - but no action to date has been taken.

Image: The letter has sparked an extraordinary spat between the two organisations

A six-page letter from a solicitor for the Met, obtained by Sky News, suggests that the Electoral Commission failed to disclose all relevant documents, delayed the police's ability to get hold of them and has not gathered evidence to the standards required.

It says: "The Metropolitan Police formed the view that the Electoral Commission has not disclosed all of the documents in its possession or control that are potentially relevant to its investigation.


"The Met has sought further disclosure from the commission on a number of occasions.

"Some further disclosure has been provided to the commission.

"The Met has a disclosure request outstanding with the commission.

"The commission remains of the view that the commission has not disclosed all of the documents in its possession or control that are potentially revelation to the Met investigation."

Image: Scotland Yard's solicitor said evidence was not gathered to the required standards

It prompted a furious response from the commission which said the allegations were "unfounded, misleading and incorrect".

A spokesperson told Sky News: "This a startling argument, put forward as part of an organisation's defence of its record on timely investigatory work.

"It is also directly contrary to recent positive comment made by the Metropolitan Police commissioner about collaborative working between our organisations.

"We are writing to her to seek urgent assurance of her position in relation to this correspondence."