Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie at a news conference in central London, Britain, March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville
March 26, 2018
LONDON (Reuters) – Lawyers for Brexit campaign whistleblowers said on Monday that there was a prima facie case that Vote Leave broke election law in the EU referendum, according to a legal opinion by law firm Bindmans which Reuters has seen.
“We consider that there is a prima facie case that the following electoral offences were committed by Vote Leave in the EU referendum campaign and that these require urgent investigation,” the lawyers said.
They listed the offences as authorizing expenses that it ought to have known would exceed election spending limits.
“We consider that there would be realistic prospects of convictions of these offences,” the lawyers said.
Dominic Cummings, a former Vote Leave director, has denied his group broke any rules, saying it had received permission from the Electoral Commission to make donations in the run-up to the referendum.
In a post on his blog, Cummings also said the allegations were part of an attempt by supporters of Britain’s continued EU membership to overturn the referendum decision to leave.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout, writing by Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Michael Holden)
