Anti-Brexit campaign ‘Led By Donkeys’ have been busy racking up the FBPE retweets for a fresh swathe of billboards they’ve put up around the country. The billboards are branded as Brexit Party adverts with a fake Brexit Party web address and feature phrases like “Attack the NHS” and “Target Gay People”. They’ve now said they’re taking down the “Target Gay People” billboard after a major backlash, Guido hears the Brexit Party are also considering legal action…

As Led By Donkeys are no doubt aware, as they’ve put a small imprint on their posters, the UK is in a regulated election period for the EU elections. Under Electoral Commission guidance Led By Donkeys clearly qualify as a non-party campaign. This means they are subject to legal spending limits:

“non-party campaigns for or against a political party, or particular categories of candidate, including campaigns on policies or issues closely associated with a particular party or category of candidates”

“Spending in the regulated period that can be reasonably regarded as intended to influence voters to vote for or against candidates or parties in the European Parliamentary elections will count towards these limits.”

Even though Led By Donkeys are yet to appear in the Electoral Commission’s database, Guido will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are in the process of registering. This means they have the following spending limits which have been in force from 23^rd January:

Led By Donkeys have helpfully catalogued every billboard they put up between February and April, counting 255 in total. They’ve also tweeted out four new billboards which have gone up this week. On their own crowdfunder, which has raised over £400,000, they estimate the cost of each billboard at £1,000:

Even the first 8 posters which they say were “guerrilla operations” they put up themselves and around a dozen outside England, this means that by their own count they have spent well over £230,000 since January. They put up the 8th “guerilla” poster on January 23 itself, all the others appear to have been put up after this. This puts them over £70,000 over the legal spending limit and in massive breach of electoral law…