Vote Leave is accused of illegal spending during the Referendum

The Electoral Commission has now, following a judicial review, found that Vote Leave was guilty of illegal spending during the Referendum.
Was there nothing that these people would do to win?
Apparently not.
It was mentioned on the Today programme that, according to a Treaty of Vienna, this would invalidate the process.
Will justice prevail or will we see another whitewash by the extreme right to keep the Tories in power?

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This has the same problem, legally, as the ECJ review.

As I said yesterday from a purely legal perspective one can conclude that the referendum was flawed (really?) but, because it was only an advisory referendum you cannot follow that with the conclusion that the government was acting outside its authority when triggering Article 50 because the authority to do that did not flow, legally speaking, from the referendum result.

In fact this very point was made in this morning’s Today programme.

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It seems, however, that all this will now come to the forefront instead of the Brexiteers saying that we have to follow the will of the people.
I don’t know which they are more afraid of, losing the Brexit argument or loss of political power to the Labour Party.
Whichever way you look at it a small minority of MP’s are controlling the democratic process.
These are the same voices that cite Brexit as bringing back power to the UK Parliament.

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I can’t imagine it will change the Brexiteer party line but we will see. Perhaps the ECJ will be emboldened in its own judgement and the pressure of the two might amount to something; one can hope.

However the time these judgements could have made a difference is, I suspect, long past - perhaps had they been available late 2016 there would have been a real argument to re-run the referendum. As it stands I just can’t see May saying to the EU, “Errr, it seems we might have made a mistake - can we talk?”.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Ms May & Co announce that as Parliament voted to implement article 50, events have overtaken the referendum and the referendum per se is immaterial.

Still, there may be light on the horizon yet if the cabinet implodes at Ms May’s pyjama party at Chequers on Friday… Will BoJo go as Andy Pandy one wonders?

This would be my view as well - this thing has taken on a life of its own way beyond the referendum result, like some monster hydra reminiscent of Hollywood B-movie horror flick.

JRM seems to be amassing a war chest to challenge TM.
Time for her to stamp authority on such as BoJo and Gove.

Unfortunately this is about personal fortunes. The Tory politicians and the right wing media are influenced by money. Doing the right thing will only happen if it equates to personal wealth by those in power.

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So far that hasn’t been her style which, such as it is, has been to keep everyone on board by kicking the hard decisions down the road. Friday might be crunch time but I wouldn’t be surprised if no real decision is made. I also suspect that the much vaunted white paper will be full of waffle and imprecision which will be rejected by the EU but I will be happy to be surprised.

To be fair she has done something which few others could - keep the Tory party from exploding. To be honest I would not loose too much sleep over the demise of the Tories except that there is no viable alternative.

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Exactly.

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Maybe the ‘alternatives’ are waiting in the wings…
We live in hope for the revolution…

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They’re doing a bloody good job of hiding then.

The LibDems seem the only party that is not riven on Brexit but I’m not sure whether that’s just because there are so few of them in Parliament.

the Labour leadership is at odds with much of the membership but terrified of appearing soft on Brexit because many of its MPs represent constituencies which heavily voted Leave in 2016. The only reason its divisions are not driving it apart like the Tories is that it isn’t in power.

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exactly. the referendum was an opinion pole nothing more that was then put into action.

always knew both sides were dirty though.

Unfortunately will not change a thing.

Ah but Paul… maybe they are just keeping their powder dry with the element of surprise should May ‘cut and run’ by announcing another (aww gawd, not another!) snap general election.

I have in mind David Miliband as a ‘Macron’ style leader of a new movement… He has the experience and the drive to do it IMHO

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That doesn’t explain Labour’s Brexit stance though which is exactly the same as the Tories.

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Corbyn is a natural Eurosceptic and the Labour Party think that its core voters want out.

As Paul says Corbyn a eurosceptic and I think reluctantly campaigned for remain. Not sure where we would be with a Labour government and brexit.
I still think it’s a case of follow the money when the cabinet are making decisions.

The majority of Conservative MP’s are not multi-millionaires like JRM. TM’s problem is trying to keep everyone in the party (and the DUP) happy which is nigh on impossible.

If Labour had got in power last year then Brexit would still happen but it would have been at the ‘soft end’ of the spectrum, things have progressed and Corbyn’s position on Brexit may have to change completely.

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