U.K. Electoral Commission Sued for Allowing Vote Leave Spending
- The Good Law Project wants High Court to examine a donation
- Group says Vote Leave was wrongly cleared to overspend
A police officer leave the a polling station for the general election at The Old Fire Station in the Stoke Newington district of London, U.K., on Thursday, June 8, 2017. Britons vote today after an election dominated by Brexit, austerity and in the closing phases, security.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergA campaign group has filed a lawsuit against the U.K. Electoral Commission for allowing overspending by Vote Leave in the run up to the Brexit referendum.
The case is regarding a 625,000-pound ($820,000) donation apparently made by Vote Leave to one of its “outreach groups” in the days before the vote. If the amount was included in the spending return, Vote Leave would have overspent by almost 10 percent, resulting in a criminal offense, said Jo Maugham, a tax attorney and founder and director of the Good Law Project.