{"id":61407,"date":"2018-03-26T06:32:02","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T06:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=61407"},"modified":"2018-03-26T06:32:02","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T06:32:02","slug":"vote-leave-activist-to-give-mps-evidence-of-rule-breaking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/world-news\/vote-leave-activist-to-give-mps-evidence-of-rule-breaking.html","title":{"rendered":"Vote Leave: Activist to give MPs evidence of ‘rule breaking’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vote Leave: Activist to give MPs evidence of ‘rule breaking’<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Brexit activist who has accused the Vote Leave campaign of exceeding legal spending limits said his claims will be backed up by evidence presented to MPs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shahmir Sanni alleged that the official Brexit campaign used a different group, BeLeave, to overspend.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both groups deny any wrongdoing and Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, a prominent Vote Leave campaigner, said the claims were “utterly ludicrous”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Labour’s Tom Watson said that “if needs be” the police should investigate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Sanni said his lawyers would be presenting “recommendations to MPs” at a news conference in London on Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n

He told the BBC: “It’s quite literally a matter of democracy and it’s up to the people of this country to have a look at the evidence themselves and decide for themselves whether the allegations are false or true.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Lawyers are looking at the evidence and [have] said there is reasonable ground and so they are going to be presenting their recommendations to MPs.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote Leave ‘broke spending limits’<\/span><\/p>\n

Electoral Commission reopens Vote Leave probe<\/span><\/p>\n

In interviews with Channel 4 News and the Observer, Mr Sanni – a volunteer for Vote Leave – said the official Brexit campaign donated \u00a3625,000 to a youth-oriented group, BeLeave, but required it to spend the money on a firm Vote Leave used for its digital advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote Leave would have gone over its campaign spending limit of \u00a37m if it had spent the money.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Electoral Commission is already looking into whether Vote Leave spent more than it was entitled to during the campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote Leave chief Dominic Cummings denied the claim and Brexit Secretary David Davis told the BBC it was the job of the commission, not ministers, to make a judgement.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nMr Sanni told the Observer \u00a3625,000 was given to the founder of BeLeave, Darren Grimes, who – he claims – was not in control of how the money was spent.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said everything they did they passed through Vote Leave manager Stephen Parkinson, Mr Sanni’s ex-boyfriend, who is now the prime minister’s political secretary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Sanni told the newspaper that most of the donation went to Canadian data firm Aggregate IQ, which has been linked to Cambridge Analytica – the firm facing claims it amassed the data of millions of people without their consent.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said he – along with two other pro-Brexit friends – reported the overspending allegation to the Electoral Commission on Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote Leave chief denies Cambridge Analytica links<\/span><\/p>\n

Cummings hits out<\/span><\/p>\n

“In effect they used BeLeave to overspend, and not just by a small amount\u2026 Almost two thirds of a million pounds makes all the difference and it wasn’t legal,” said Mr Sanni, who first worked as a Vote Leave outreach volunteer before working for BeLeave.<\/span><\/p>\n

“They say that it wasn’t coordinated, but it was. And so the idea that\u2026 the campaign was legitimate is false.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Vote Leave has previously said it made the donation to Mr Grimes because it was coming up to its \u00a37m spending limit and wanted a way of using the \u00a39.2m it had raised from individuals and companies on campaigning activities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The campaign separately spent \u00a32.7m on the services of AIQ in the run-up to the EU referendum.<\/span><\/p>\n

BeLeave was set up to give young pro-Brexit campaigners a voice during the referendum.<\/span><\/p>\n

Separate campaign groups could spend up to \u00a3700,000 if they registered as permitted participants.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a blog on Friday, Mr Cummings denied allegations of links between his campaign and Cambridge Analytica and said the claims were “factually wrong, hopelessly confused, or nonsensical”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lawyers for AIQ told Channel 4 News that it had “never entered into a contract with Cambridge Analytica” and it had “never knowingly been involved in any illegal activity”.<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Misleading’<\/span>
\nIn a “personal statement” issued to Channel 4 News, Stephen Parkinson denied the allegations and said he was confident he had stayed within the law and spending rules “at all times”.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said he was “saddened” by what he called “the factually incorrect and misleading” statements from Mr Sanni, who now works for the Taxpayers’ Alliance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, Mr Sanni said – in a statement issued through his lawyers – that Mr Parkinson had outed him as gay in his original response.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Sanni, a British Pakistani, said he was forced to tell his family and that relatives in Pakistan could be in danger as a result.<\/span><\/p>\n

In his original statement, published on Mr Cummings’ blog on Friday, Mr Parkinson said he dated Mr Sanni for 18 months, before splitting up in September 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n

“That is the capacity in which I gave Shahmir advice and encouragement, and I can understand if the lines became blurred for him, but I am clear that I did not direct the activities of any separate campaign groups,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Grimes told Channel 4 News he denied the allegations.<\/span><\/p>\n

A solicitor for Vote Leave told the programme the campaign had been cleared twice on this issue by the Electoral Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Electoral Commission said: “The commission has a number of investigations open in relation to campaigners at the EU referendum; it does not comment on live investigations.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/uk-politics-43535497<\/span><\/p>\n

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