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£20,000 fine imposed by the Electoral Commission to BeLeave overturned

(6 Posts)
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POGS Mon 22-Jul-19 18:43:10

The Electoral Commission has ' lost ' an appeal by Darren Grimes / BeLeave over a £20.000 fine it had imposed on him last year after being accused of ' breaching spending rules ' during the EU referendum campaign three years ago.

There have been many commentators, media journalists and social media posts who have raised / used this ' fine' to attack the credibility of the EU Referendum result. Fair enough it was only one of the fines dished out by the Electoral Commission to both the Leave and Remain sides but I think his exoneration should be noted.

They are being very quiet now the Electoral Commission has ' lost' the appeal.

BBC Daily Politics had him on today and in fact today's programme was well worth a watch over the subjects covered and the responses by the guests was interesting to hear.

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Urmstongran Mon 22-Jul-19 19:00:55

I agree POGS I watched ‘Politics Live’ at lunchtime. Talk about hounding of this 22y old by the quango of the Electoral Commission.

Poor lad was delighted to be completely exonerated of any wrong doing.

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quizqueen Mon 22-Jul-19 19:03:57

Nearly all the political parties seem to think they can cheat the system. When Nigel Farage stood in Thanet comes to mind, when it was reported that the Tories bused in lots of supporters to canvass and paid their hotel bills, which would surely have put them over the election spending limit.

I used to be Treasurer of a local UKIP branch and had to account for every single expense, and righty so. We were always way under the limit threshold though as we only had a couple of grand in the bank, whereas the bigger parties were spending in the tens of thousands at election time.
Then, of course, there was Cameron's £9 million Remain leaflet sent out to every home which, conveniently, was posted before the official election expenditure period started!!

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MaizieD Mon 22-Jul-19 19:46:27

The 'poor lad' got off on the most extraordinary defence of 'finding the form too complicated to fill in'.

I'd always understood that ignorance is no defence in law. But, there you go. We live in strange times

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lemongrove Mon 22-Jul-19 22:11:21

He was completely exonerated, it was right that the matter was investigated but the hounding was all wrong.Pleased for him.

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maddyone Mon 22-Jul-19 23:44:38

I watched the Daily Politics today too. I totally agree POGS with your resume of the situation. Darren Grimes spoke well on the programme in my opinion. He certainly was hounded Urmstongran, there seems little doubt about that.

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