DPP considering complaint that the LEAVE campaigns misled voters in breach of election law
Another controversial Brexit court case in pipeline. CPS considering complaint that leave campaigns misled voters https://t.co/rQqvAT1Glz
— Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) November 7, 2016
It’s hard to know how to assess the seriousness
This afternoon’s report is the first anybody has heard of this and it is difficult to know what will happen if anything.
The complaint has been made by Prof Bob Watt, who is an expert in electoral law at the University of Buckingham. The Guardian report notes:
“Watt and his colleagues who have prepared the case say it centres on “instances where the leave campaigns continued to make assertions of fact that were knowingly misleading”, including the oft-cited claim of the EU costing the UK £350m a week.
That claim, made by Vote Leave, was contrary to evidence from the Office for National Statistics, Watt said. Other instances cited to the DPP include alleged misrepresentations on pro-Brexit leaflets that Nissan and Unilever supported leaving the EU.
Watt also cited Vote Leave’s posters that claimed “Turkey is joining the EU”, as well as the assertion that “the UK has no border controls whilst in the EU” when billions are spent on the UK Border Agency…”
I noted at the time that LEAVE was moving into dangerous territory by continuing with the £350m claim even when the ONS had called on it stop.
What the DPP will make of this we’ll have to see.