Electoral Commission promises to visit Brexit Party HQ to review its funding

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) - Credit: Getty Images

The Electoral Commission has vowed to launch a review into the Brexit Party’s funding following calls from a former prime minister to investigate.

An Electoral Commission spokesman said it would be visiting the headquarters of the Brexit Party within the next 24 hours.

A spokesperson told the Press Association: “The Brexit Party, like all registered political parties, has to comply with laws that require any donation it accepts of over £500 to be from a permissible source.

“It is also subject to rules for reporting donations, loans, campaign spending and end of year accounts. We have already been talking to the party about these issues.

“As part of our active oversight and regulation of these rules, we are attending the Brexit Party’s office tomorrow to conduct a review of the systems it has in place to receive funds, including donations over £500 that have to be from the UK only.

“If there’s evidence that the law may have been broken, we will consider that in line with our Enforcement Policy.”

Former prime minister Gordon Brown challenged the Electoral Commission and the European Parliament to indicate whether they are investigating the party, or say whether questions over dubious payments had been answered, ahead of the European elections.

Brown said: “The Electoral Commission and the European Parliament should now investigate the finances of Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party.

“Democracy is undermined when we have undeclared, unreported, untraceable payments being made to the Brexit Party.

“We have the potential for underhand and under-the-counter payments being made.

“You know the history of this – Leave.EU, Nigel Farage and Arron Banks’ campaign is now under criminal investigation.

“There’s three investigations – one by the National Crime Agency, one by the Met Police and one by the Information Commissioner.

“Arron Banks, the lead funder of Leave.EU and the friend of Nigel Farage has been under investigation – he has made contacts with Russia. We don’t know where his money comes from.

“And yet we find out last week that he has given £450,000 in payments to support Nigel Farage, while Nigel Farage was in a public office in the European Parliament, who should have been declaring the payments that he was receiving from anyone to avoid any conflicts of interest.”