Our judicial review of the Electoral Commission – Update

When we initially wrote to the Electoral Commission it said our case was without merit. We then filed our claim in the High Court and it abandoned that position and conceded it needed to reopen its investigation into whether Vote Leave had committed a criminal offence. That investigation will look at collusion between Vote Leave and Darren Grimes.

But last week, we wrote to the Electoral Commission stating that we would not accept their invitation to abandon our judicial review in light of that concession. And yesterday we filed our reasons with the High Court. You can read them here: Vote-Leave-Reply.

The reason we are continuing with our judicial review is because, if we are right on the law, the investigation is irrelevant.

It is accepted by all parties that Vote Leave paid Aggregate IQ around £625,000 for referendum services and did not include that £625,000 on its spending return. We think those facts, on their own, establish that the £625,000 counts as Vote Leave’s spending. If it does then Vote Leave has spent considerably more than the law allows and commissioned a criminal offence.

And we will be inviting the High Court to say so.