EU referendum campaign groups named by Electoral Commission

15 Apr 2016

The Electoral Commission has confirmed the two lead campaign groups for the EU referendum, naming Britain Stronger in Europe as the lead campaigner for the yes vote, and Vote Leave Ltd for the ‘leave’ option, giving them access to up to £7m official funding, a nationwide leaflet drop and TV advertising slots.

The pro-EU group, Britain Strong in Europe, is led by Lord Rose, former CEO of Marks & Spencer.

Vote Leave, backed by London mayor and MP, Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, justice secretary, and chaired by Lord (Nigel) Lawson, is the main Brexit campaign group. This means that the Go Movement group backed by Nigel Farrage, head of the UKIP party, will not receive public funding, although it could join forces with the Vote Leave campaign.

Explaining its decision to designate Vote Leave ahead of the two other competing applications on the ‘leave’ side, Claire Bassett, chief executive of the Electoral Commission said: ‘Where there are competing applicants for a particular outcome the law is clear, we must designate the applicant which appears to us to represent those campaigning for that outcome to the greatest extent.

‘We received two high quality applications on the “leave” side, from Vote Leave Ltd and The Go Movement Ltd. After careful consideration, the Commission decided that Vote Leave Ltd better demonstrated that it has the structures in place to ensure the views of other campaigners are represented in the delivery of its campaign. It therefore represents, to a greater extent than Go Movement Ltd, those campaigning for the “leave” outcome, which is the test we must apply.

‘We encourage all campaigners to now focus on engaging voters on the historic decision they will have to take on 23 June.’

Explaining the rationale for its decision on the out campaign, the Commission said that Vote Leave Ltd provided well-developed plans and structures for how they would support other campaigning organisations. Their offer of support is not conditional on organisations agreeing to deliver messages or activity on their behalf and there is an established forum (the ‘contact group’) with the specific intended purpose of allowing an exchange of views between campaigners.

By contrast, the approach from ‘Go Movement Ltd’ was based on other campaigners signing formalised agreements as ‘affiliates’ but there was no established mechanism for supporting campaigners who do not wish to sign these.

The two lead campaign groups will now have access to specific benefits set out in law during the regulated ‘referendum period’ which begins on 15 April. The benefits of being a lead campaigner are:

a higher spending limit of £7m;
one free distribution of information to voters;
the use of certain public rooms;
referendum campaign broadcasts; and
a grant of up to £600,000 to be used for certain spending including the administration costs associated with setting up and running a referendum campaign and the costs associated with the TV broadcasts and free mailing to voters that they are entitled to as lead campaigners.