Whistleblower claims Brexit campaign 'cheated to bend spending rules'

The official Brexit campaign "cheated" during the European Union referendum, a whistleblower has claimed.

The whistleblower has accused Vote Leave of bypassing strict spending limits set by the Electoral Commission, by donating to another group.

Shahmir Sanni, who worked on the campaign, claimed Vote Leave donated to BeLeave, in order to get around the limit.

Vote Leave has strongly denied wrongdoing and said the £625,000 donated to BeLeave was within the rules.

Mr Sanni told Channel 4 news he knows that "Vote Leave cheated" and that "the referendum wasn't legitimate."

He claimed: "In effect they used BeLeave to over-spend, and not just by a small amount ... Almost two-thirds of a million pounds makes all the difference and it wasn't legal."

Vote Leave said it did not recall Mr Sanni working as a volunteer, but he was "like hundreds of others who occasionally visited the offices".

In response to the allegations, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson tweeted that they were "utterly ludicrous".

While Brexit Secretary David Davis said that if there was "any truth at all" in the allegations, then the Electoral Commission should investigate.

However, former cabinet minister Nicky Morgan called the allegations "very concerning", telling LBC that "democracy is a very important and very precious thing.

"If people start thinking they can go around undermining the law on it, then I think that actually is a really bad step for our democracy."

Meanwhile, Green Party co-leader Caroline Lucas said the claims demonstrate "that there is something rotten at the heart of our democracy and that we need to be overhauling our rules that govern elections".

Appearing on the Andrew Marr Show, Ms Lucas added she wanted to see "a real investigation into exactly who knew what - the ministers associated with the Vote Leave campaign, what did they know about the money that was going to BeLeave?"

Also appearing on the BBC One show, deputy Labour leader Tom Watson said Theresa May "needs to make sure the Electoral Commission has the resources to fully investigate the allegations made that there was criminal collusion - because let's remember the people that led these campaigns are now senior cabinet members.

"And I think we need to make sure that they were not aware of what was going on and that's why I think the resources are needed and if needs be the police should be resourced to investigate as well."

Mr Sanni has also accused senior Vote Leave figure Stephen Parkinson of "outing" him when he disclosed in a statement that the pair had been in a relationship for 18 months around the time of the referendum.

Mr Sanni told the broadcaster he was initially a Vote Leave outreach volunteer but he was then assigned to BeLeave.

Mr Sanni said that he and BeLeave's co-founder Darren Grimes always reported to Mr Parkinson.

"There was no time where anything BeLeave did didn't go through Stephen," he said.

In the final 10 days of the 2016 referendum campaign Vote Leave donated £625,000 to Mr Grimes, who was registered as a permitted participant, with the money used to pay Canadian data firm Aggregate IQ (AIQ), the programme said.

Mr Parkinson told how he was "saddened" by the "factually incorrect and misleading" statements by Mr Sanni and his lawyers.

He said: "At the relevant time during the referendum period, the commission advised Vote Leave that it was permissible to make a donation in the way it proposed to do to BeLeave.

"Twice since the referendum the commission has investigated this matter, and twice it has found no evidence of wrongdoing. A third investigation into the same issue is currently taking place."

He added: "I firmly deny the allegations in the programme."

Mr Grimes also denies all the allegations, Channel 4 said.