The Electoral Commission has announced today (1 November) that it is investigating Arron Banks (pictured), the top Leave.EU Brexit campaign funder.
Specifically, the Electoral Commission is looking into:
• Whether or not Better for the Country Limited was the true source of donations made to referendum campaigners in its name, or if it was acting as an agent;
• whether the recipients of its donations were given the information required by PPERA [the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act of 2000] in respect of the donor, and;
• what steps the recipients took to verify the identity and permissibility of Better for the Country Limited as a donor.
The Commission is in fact researching whether the funds came from Banks himself, or whether there was some other, secret source.
The Commission says it will examine:
• Whether or not Banks was the true source of loans reported by a referendum campaigner in his name.
• Whether those individuals and entities involved in that arrangement acted in accordance with PPERA.
• Whether any individual facilitated a transaction with a non-qualifying person.
