![]() ![]() In other words, Vote Leave may have deliberately misled the public. In light of the above, one can logically arrive at the conclusion that the Vote Leave campaign released statements, which it knew to be incorrect. I think they made a mistake in doing that.” It wasn’t one of my adverts, I can assure you. That was one of the mistakes I think the Leave campaign made. While Iain Duncan Smith downplayed it as “ there was talk about it going to the NHS”, Boris Johnson implied that there may have been a misunderstanding: “w e must reach out, we must heal, we must build bridges – because it is clear that some have feelings of dismay, and of loss, and confusion.” Further, Nigel Farage stated: “ No, I can’t. What’s more, since the referendum result several of these members have distanced themselves from these pledges. Intelligent, educated and established individuals, they were challenged numerous times on the accuracy of the £350 million figure prior to the referendum. Their role within the group was to “ coordinate between campaign committee meetings and meet on a daily basis”. While no one person has claimed ownership over the statements, we do know that Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Gisela Stuart, Matthew Elliott, Dominic Cummings and Ian Davidson were all on the committee of Vote Leave within a ‘core group’. It thus appears that it is not a certainty, meaning the statement is false.ĭid Vote Leave know they were making statements that were inaccurate? ![]() There is no reason to believe that this proposition is anything but a farfetched conspiracy. There has been no confirmation from Turkey or the EU to suggest that this is the case, meaning that if it is a certainty, not only have the public have been deceived, but Vote Leave are aware of the deception and refuse to inform the public of the same. On a literal reading, this contention can only be correct if Turkey joining the EU is a certainty (after all, the statement says that Turkey ‘is’, rather than ‘might be’ or ‘probably will’). It has been well reported that Turkey has been engaging in discussions on joining the EU. The origins of this statement are not contentious. In respect of the immigration claim, the boldest statement was “ TURKEY (population 76 million) IS JOINING THE EU”. To put it in the form of an analogous question: would you like a slice of a cake that does not exist? As for the claim “ let’s give the NHS the £350 million the EU takes every week”, considering the EU does not take £350 million per week, it is not possible to give this hypothetical amount of money to the NHS. The conclusion therefore seems to be that the Vote Leave statement is incorrect. It does not involve any transfer of money from the Commission or other member states to the Exchequer.” As such, the abatement is applied before the UK pays its contribution, meaning £350 million is not sent or taken. One can only guess that £341 million was rounded to the nearest 50, which is why the figure £350 million was preferred.Īs to the claim that the money is ‘sent’ each week, in ‘European Union Finances 2015’, HM Treasury states the following: “ the effect of the rebate is to reduce the amount of the UK’s monthly GNI-based payments to the EU Budget. Divide this figure by 52 weeks and we arrive at £341 million. Within the publication it is stated that the estimated gross payments to the EU amounts to £17.779 billion. The figure most likely came from the HM Treasury publication ‘European Union Finances 2015’. The Institute for Fiscal Studies called the £350 million figure “c learly absurd”, while the House of Commons Treasury Committee said the figure was “ highly misleading”. While the public may have grown used to politicians peddling what they believe to be lies, could the Crown Prosecution Service have jurisdiction to prosecute Vote Leave over its referendum propaganda? As a criminal barrister, in this article I will set out how Vote Leave could potentially find itself on the wrong side of the law.Įmblazoned on the Vote Leave campaign bus and on the Vote Leave website was a pledge that the UK sends £350 million to the EU each week which could be spent on the NHS. Second, that remaining in the European Union would lead to unrestricted immigration. First, that the UK sends £350 million to the European Union every week and this money would be spent on the National Health Service if the UK voted to leave the European Union. Vote Leave is said to have done so by promoting two claims. ![]() Since that date there has been widespread anger from those who believe that the organisation ‘Vote Leave’ misled members of the public. On 23 June 2016 over 33 million people voted in the EU referendum. ![]()
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