Met Police drop investigation into Arron Banks and Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU
The Brexit campaign backed by British millionaire Arron Banks and Nigel Farage will face no further criminal investigation into the spending return it submitted.
Leave.EU was one of the campaigns supporting Brexit during the 2016 EU referendum.
While police accepted there were “some technical breaches of electoral law”, they said there was “insufficient evidence to justify any further criminal investigation”.
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The Metropolitan Police had submitted a file to the Crown Prosecution Service on 5 August to investigate whether further action was needed.
Commander Alex Murray, of Central Specialist Crime, said: “It was right to investigate the allegation, however following detailed enquiries it became apparent that the nature of potential breaches of the regulations, the criminal standard of proof required in court and the actions taken by Leave.EU to adhere to the regulations, mean that it is now appropriate to take no further action.”
In a lengthy statement following the news, Banks criticised the Electoral Commission and called for the resignation of Conservative MP Damian Collins as well as the Commission’s chief executive.
“The disgraceful political collusion between the Electoral Commission & the Damian Collins “remain biased” DCMS committee and a number of leading Remain MPs, demonstrate a serious abuse of public office and we will be demanding a full public inquiry investigation into their actions,” he said.
“We will be writing to the Prime Minister today demanding a public inquiry into the actions of the Electoral commission. I am today calling for the resignation of Damian Collins and the CEO of Electoral commission as a result of today’s news.”
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He added: “The investigation has taken a huge personal toll on [Leave.EU CEO] Liz Bilney, her family and the harassment and lies perpetrated by anti-Brexit MPs is disgraceful. MP’s like Stephen Kinnock & Ian Lavery should apologise to Liz and the 1.5 million supporters of Leave.EU they tried to smear.
“We would like to thank the Metropolitan Police Commissioner for giving her officers her full support at all times.”
The investigation into the spending returns of fellow Brexit campaigns, Vote Leave, which was run by Dominic Cummings and closely involved Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, as well as Be.Leave, are still ongoing.