Labour Leave Cleared Over Seb Dance’s UKIP Claims

Publicity-loving Labour MEP Seb Dance last week stirred up a full-blown internal investigation into claims that pro-Brexit group Labour Leave made improper payments to UKIP during the EU referendum campaign. Such payments would be in breach of Labour’s rulebook. The party’s largest donor and Labour Leave founder millionaire John Mills was caught up in the story, with Dance calling for him to be thrown out of the party.

Labour Leave yesterday received a letter including the following statement from the party’s General Secretary Iain McNicol:
“I am satisfied that the money was transferred for the purposes of meeting shared costs for joint referendum events that had been paid for by UKIP. This has been reported as such by Labour Leave in your spending return to the Electoral Commission. In addition, the Commission advised you to report this payment as a “donation” for regulatory purposes. There is no indication that the money has, or will be, used for any other purposes.”
All a song and Dance over nothing…
February 10, 2017 at 4:27 pm
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Labour MEP Demands Purge of Biggest Donor and Prominent Brexiteer

Moves are being made at the highest level of the Labour Party to throw out their largest indivdual donor, the millionaire John Mills, who has given them nearly £2 million. He formed the pro-Brexit group “Labour Leave” to persuade Labour Party members to vote for Brexit, which was backed financially by Tory-supporting Brexit donors and has even paid £18,500 to UKIP. Labour Leave explain:

During the EU referendum campaign, Labour Leave co-organised events with other groups in favour of Brexit. These were cross-party events and included representatives from Labour, the Conservatives and UKIP, as well as non-partisan organisations. We sought clarity from the Electoral Commission to ensure we were compliant, and they advised us to pay our share of the cost in the form of a donation. This one-off payment to UKIP was solely our share of this cost. The figure covered the cost of venue hire, transport, accommodation and security for the events.

Seb Dance, a Labour MEP facing imminent unemployment, has written to General Secretary Iain McNicol demanding that Mills be thrown out of the party. Guido thinks Labour would be crazy to drive their biggest donor out of the party. They’re not that crazy, are they?

January 30, 2017 at 10:45 am
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