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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Electoral Commission pull up Brexit Party on funding

It was long overdue, but at last the Electoral Commission has asked Nigel Farage’s Brexit party to check the £2.5 million it has received in donations to ensure the money has come from legitimate sources.

They will apparently oversee checks carried out by the party after criticising the way the party accepts gifts through online payment systems such as PayPal. And they have stipulated that any money that cannot be traced should be returned to the donor or given to the Treasury.

The Guardian says that the request follows a report released by the commission last Wednesday, which said the party’s structure “leaves it open to a high and ongoing risk of receiving and accepting impermissible donations”.

They add that new documents from the commission, which were released on Monday, show the party has been asked to “review all payments, including those of £500 or below, it has received to date”.

The commission has also asked that the party amend its online system for accepting payments so that donors give their full address and contact details and that it uses systems in future that will only accept payments from a card where the billing address matches the payer’s address:

The party, which won 29 seats in last month’s European elections, could face penalties unless it overhauls its fundraising system to ensure all donations above £500 come from the UK, as the law requires.

Critics are concerned the party’s present system allows an individual or a foreign power to make many small payments to a party, each less than £500, with no legal requirement for any details to be submitted.

A number of people highlighted during the recent European election campaign, how the Brexit Party's website allowed overseas donors to contribute potentially illegal, but non-declarable donations of less than £500.

Carole Cadwalladr, the journalist who exposed Cambridge Analytica, even demonstrated that the Brexit Party's Paypal system was allowing foreign currencies to be converted into pound sterling, with the ultimate source of that money being shielded by the lack of a requirement for the donor to give a matching name and address.

In the circumstances, it is absolutely right that the Electoral Commission should have acted on this and required any illegal payments to be repaid.
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