as I recall Godfrey Bloom was chairman of ADDE and it was managed by Bonecci – it should be entertaining to see the efforts the EU will have to make to get 1Million EUros back from either of them!
You may remember Farage wanted Ukip to form a Pan EU Party but the members voted against Ukip expanding his empire and income so ignoring the member’s vote he set it up anyway and put his placeman Godfrey in office!
Defunct Eurosceptic party linked to Ukip asked to repay €1.1m
Alliance for Direct Democracy must repay entire 2016 grant after investigation into misspending of EU funds
The Alliance for Direct Democracy, which was dominated by Ukip, was investigated over misspending of EU funds. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex
A defunct European political grouping that was dominated by Ukip has been asked to repay €1.1m (£977,000) to the European parliament following an investigation into misspending of EU funds.
On Tuesday it emerged that the defunct party is facing an even higher bill, after European parliament authorities asked the ADDE to repay its entire 2016 grant. A meeting of senior MEPs concluded that the ADDE owed the parliament €1.1m in funds “unduly paid” in 2016, because it had never supplied documents to prove that the grant had been spent in line with EU rules.
“Despite the reminders, ADDE never provided the final statement of eligible expenditure actually incurred to the auditor,” concluded an internal report.
Refusing to sign off the ADDE accounts, the auditors found that €299,270 had been spent in breach of EU rules, while the rest was unclear. The ADDE could also not be described as “a going concern” because it had gone into liquidation, auditors said.
In 2016 the ADDE was asked to repay tens of thousands when it was found to have spent EU funds on the 2015 British general election campaign, breaking rules that bar spending on domestic politics. A sister organisation, the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe, was asked to repay €35,000 and later lost an appeal to have EU funds reinstated.
ADDE was found to have spent EU funds on Nigel Farage’s bid to become an MP in the 2015 UK general election. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
The EU began funding pan-European political parties and foundations ahead of the 2014 European elections in an effort to stir political debate beyond national borders. The rules were tightened up after it emerged that Eurosceptic parties had been using the money for national campaigns. More than 40% of ADDE members were Ukip MEPs, and no other party had more than a handful of members.
The former party is separate from Ukip’s group in the European parliament, the Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy, but the two organisations shared many members, including EFDD’s leader, Nigel Farage.
Farage, who is being docked half his MEP salary over a separate dispute, told the Guardian he “wouldn’t know” anything about ADDE finances, noting that he had never been a director. He accused the parliament of singling out Eurosceptic parties: “Ever since Brexit, the whole thing has been vindictive in the most extraordinary way.”
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UKIP Leader Gerard Batten said: “I have just heard that Jim Carver MEP has resigned from UKIP. I immediately spoke to Jim on the telephone. He was unable or unwilling to give me a coherent reason for his resignation. I spoke to him earlier this week and he gave me no indication of his intentions.
“I asked him to do the decent and honourable thing and resign his MEP seat and make way for the next UKIP person on the Party List. He refused.
“I am sorry to say Jim has joined the ranks of those without honour who continue to take the salary, expenses and pension which they would never have had without the sacrifice of ordinary UKIP members.
“UKIP will continue its fight for a complete exit from the European Union.
Do be minded that none of the many Ukip MEPs who quit Ukip has stood down as an MEP to make way for the next Ukip MEP in line!
During the Welsh Devolution campaign when I was a very active member of the NO campaign and was also trying to clean up Ukip’s act so that they would possibly be competent to lead the campaign against EU membership – something eventually they sadly did more to hinder than to help, with their corruption, in fighting and petty squables not to mention their overt racism and general incompetence – I introduced Carys Pugh, Betty Bowen & Hopkins, founder members of the Welsh NO Campaign to Jim Carver, to work with Ukip.
Sadly Jim Carver was way out of his depth and far more interested in selling umberellas, trying to buy a classic car Carys owned and trying to get me to sell him Medals awarded to Jewish soldiers, who served with the British Army, at below market value!
When Richard Suchozewski was elected as Chairman and Leader of Ukip in Wales he pretty rapidly saw Jim Carver’s self interested shortcomings and dumped him as Ukip Regional Organiser for Wales and replaced him with John Bufton.
I was amused to note today that although Jim Carver is one of my MEPs I thought I’d look at his Twitter Feed to see if he had commented on his having quit Ukip only to find he is clearly ashamed of his behaviour and has blocked me:
You are blocked from following @JamesJimCarver and viewing @JamesJimCarver‘s Tweets. Learn more
I therefore used another account, which I do not post with, merely read other accounts with, and scanned through his recent entries to his site – Here is Jim Carvers:
After 22 years’ tireless campaigning for #UKIP, I announce my resignation.
1./ Jim Carver quit Ukip almost exactly when he first heard the ADDE Pan EU Party , which I understand he was closely linked with, is being ordered to repay about 1 Million of tax payers’ money which they fraudulently squandered amongst other things on funding Farage’s efforts to get elected as an MP!
2./ I’m not surprised Jim Carver quit the EFDD to join the ‘Non Escrit’ MEPs as that will give him personal control of 40>50K extra in expenses that as an EFDD member Farage used!
I expect you will find the few MEPs who remain in Ukip will quit quite soon now, both to gain the extra expenses and to start negotiating as potential EU Lobbyists or for jobs in the EU or even some for jobs with the Tories.
I gather Ukip MEPs are already angling for EU jobs remaining on EU salaries, expenses and perks during any transition term that the EU forces on Britain to go on milking the British tax payers although the majority vote was for an unconditional BreXit!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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it does seem very much as if there is an official cover-up in progress – Just why are the facts regarding the charges related to electoral fraud by Tory MP Craig MacKinley, previously of Ukip, being so obviously suppressed?
C4News, Sun, Times & Mail failed today in bid to Supreme Ct to lift reporting restrictions on legal arguments in courts over criminal proceedings against Craig Mackinlay MP, Nathan Gray & Marion Little, accused of alleged election offences relating to 2015 Election in S Thanet
If it’s an actual criminal prosecution and just straight reporting without attempts to effect the case how is that so? Is any member of the UK public needing protection in their private or even public life over this. Very strange.
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Who Are The Criminals? #Police#CPS or #Courts! #Craig_MacKinley charged with #Electoral_Fraud in 2015 – 3 YEARS later he was due in Court today but ‘Case Postponed due to legal reasons’ WHO is colluding in the crime? ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’ THIS IS SHAMEFULL!
Sadly true – The criminality of #Ukip is well documented, even including theft, contempt of court, burglary, fraud, false witness, abuse of office etc. etc. yet never do their cronies in the #police#cps#OLAF etc. take appropriate action – thus colluding in the crimes!
Trial of South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay over election expenses is delayed
The crown court trial of South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay and two former aides on charges relating to false election expenses declarations has been delayed.
Mr Mackinlay, 50, election agent Nathan Gray, 28, and party activist Marion Little, 62, were each been charged with offences under the Representation of the People Act 1983.
Mr Mackinlay faced two charges, Mr Gray one charge and Ms Little three counts.
All three pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing.
The trial was due to begin at Southwark Crown Court today (May 14) but has been delayed for legal reasons.
A new date has not been set so far.
The accusations relate to a Channel 4 investigation which questioned the local election spend during the Conservative campaign in 2015.
Mr Mackinlay won the South Thanet seat, beating former UKIP leader Nigel Farage into second place, with a majority of almost 3,000 in 2015.
He increased that majority when he retained the seat in the June snap election with 25,262 votes ahead of Labour’s Raushan Ara who received 18,875 votes.
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you may remenber the untrustworthy scoundrel Paul Nuttall who Nigel Farage put in place as leader of Ukip, presumably to destroy it. It was clear that Paul Nuttall was a dishonest and corrupt little oike from many years ago – he was proven to have told so many lies that you will note some wag displayed him as having been in The Bayeux Tapestry, he had dishonestly claimed he was a Professor, had been a professional footballer, was at the Hillsboro tragedy, had been with close friend who had died, had a PHd, Had been to Universities he hadn’t was a lecturer at University, lived in constituencied which he didn’t, lived in an apartment he found in an estate agents window etc. etc. etc.
Finally after this blog had exposed him and he became exposed by the media and the butt of jokes around the internet and had led Ukip to total catastrohpy in an election he was forced to resign as leader – he lacked the integrity even to resign his seat as he no doubt enjoyed the level of income he could never expect to actually earn in the real world.
Still he and his cronies befoul the British body politic!
Paul Nuttall is no longer UKIP leader but is still an MEP on £80k per year. His voting record though since the Brexit vote is the 4th worst in the EU (42%). He wasn’t in Brussels on Monday but was there (until 2pm) Tuesday where he told me “I won Brexit…I’m worth every penny.”
Fellow #NorthWest#MEP#Louise_Bours hasn’t spoken in @Europarl_EN since Feb 2016! Minimal activity as an elected rep, yet she employs FIVE full time members of staff. What are these people doing on her behalf, apart from keeping their seats warm?
Whether she fails to attend because the odious liar #Paul_Nuttall effectively gave her the #MEP job or out of embarrassment at her association with the creepy little con man is hard to tell.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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As Amber Rudd desperately tries to present a kinder, gentler public face after the Windrush scandal, Mandrake can reveal the home secretary has been accepting donations from a former UKIP supporter. The latest register of members’ interests shows she has been in receipt of £10,000 from Christopher Mills, once a generous donor to UKIP, where he served as business spokesman and a treasurer. He previously gifted £5,000 to Rudd via his company, Growth Financial Services.
Mills, who makes the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune estimated at £317 million, was a Tory backer before becoming involved with Nigel Farage’s outfit. Perhaps Rudd would do well to ponder the advice she received from the great David Lammy in his excoriating attack on her in the Commons: “If you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.”
Nudes values
Mandrake believes that it is time Nigel Farage granted an interview to The New European. Alas, no amount of teasing on Twitter over the past week could tempt Farage to talk to a journalist who isn’t employed by one of his personal friends, such as Sir David Barclay – the co-owner of the Telegraph – or Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Sun.
So I texted the press contact that came up for Farage on his MEP website to see if we could at least discuss the idea. I received an unnerving reply that put me off my lunch. Before I tell you what it was, I must first explain the contact on his website is given as Annabelle Fuller. She was once Farage’s press officer and mistress, but has long since chosen to vacate both positions. Annabelle has explained to me that the number I had texted now belongs to a cheeky 15-year-old living in the Midlands. “I’ve repeatedly told Nigel to take that number and my email off his website,” she adds, wearily. Methinks the reply I received may well galvanise her former lover into action.
“Nigel can’t talk to you now,” the text read. Mandrake Locates Farage: “He is tied up on the bed in pink fluffy handcuffs.” …
It is also worthy of note as Tim Walker started his article for this pro EU ‘New EUropean’ comic with an article on Boris Johnson – do be minded of a Tweet of mine today:
Interesting when you appreciate olygarchs are not created in #Russia without the approval of their modern day #Tsars that it seems #Aleksander_Temerko, probably backed by #Putin & #FSB would seem to be a financial backer of #Boris_Johnson of OUR #FO!
In view of #Russia‘s apparent #FSB sponsored contributions in #Britain‘s electoral process is it not time we CEASED providing candidates & MPs with full unredacted #electoral_rolls as we currently do, thus providing security material to #Russian sponsored candidates!
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Hillarious – I gather #Ukip have been begging the #EU to keep them employed during #BreXit transition as experts on #UK EU interface & want to act as advisors & go betweens with the #British Embassy – You couldn’t make it up!
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Ukip must be so proud of their new leader and his ability to drag the party into the extremist racist gutter he has inhabited for so many years:
One should not be too surprised at his extreme views about other people’s superstitions and his vituperative language and behaviour as he is married to a Phillipino, who was most probably brought up under the guidance of Cardinal Sin and extreme catholic superstitions – be minded just how beset the Phillipines have been with terrorism, rivalries and massacres between the superstitions of the two main cults on the islands catholics and muslims!
The hatred that has been bred into much of mankind by the various Bronze Age superstitions they have invented is an omni-present hang on of the barbarism of past cults – some, like Batten, would seem to struggle with their chosen superstition and have much in common with the barbarism of Islamic extremists that they themselves find it impossible to move on and rise above it.
In other sectors of society both hatred of islam & judaism as with the ill educated knuckle draggers that gravitate in ignorance to Socialism & the Labour Party!
There has always been a claque of extremism in British politics be it founded on superstitions jealousies or nationalism – Ukip nowaqdays merely fills in the cracks in the gutter along with the rump politics of Mosley, Nazi, SNP, New Britain, BNP and the like.
UKIP Endorses Tommy Robinson
The remaining membership of that motley convocation of saloon bar propper-uppers otherwise known as UKIP has recently agreed that their interim leader Gerard Batten would hold the post permanently. Batten has now declared that the Kippers are no longer in financial trouble, although exactly how this has been achieved is not told. But what is clear is that the party needs new members, and needs them quickly.
I em not a racialist, but, und zis is a big but …
At next month’s local elections, UKIP will not stand candidates in many contests. The party is expected to be all but wiped out after results have been declared, not helped by a series of defections and resignations along the way. Worse, the far-right has been making inroads into UKIP support. So Adolf von Batten has decided to cosy up to them, although perhaps he should read the party’s rules first.
These state “Membership is not available to anyone who is or has previously been a member of the British National Party, the National Front, the UK First party, the English Defence League, the British Freedom Party, British People’s Party and the Britain First Party (or any other parties or organisations later added to the proscribed list). Any applications made from people who are or have been members of these organisations will be refused, and any subscriptions collected will be refunded. By making an application for membership, the applicant certifies that he is not and has never been a member of either of these parties”. So what has Batten’s response been?
Simples. He has decided to cosy up to Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. Lennon brings a considerable following to the table, but he also has significant baggage: founder of the EDL, a criminal record which includes convictions for violence and fraud, and an ability to be highly economical with the actualité.
None of this appears to have fazed Batten, who has given Lennon his endorsement by sitting down for an interview, the culmination of his own long march towards intolerance, typified by assertions such as “A substantial ‘majority’ know multiculturalism has failed. A multi-racial society works where all share a common loyalty to their nation and its institutions, political & legal etc. But multiculturalism means competing groups with different agendas”. Loyalty. Isolating the disloyal. But not Jews. Yet.
Who might be “disloyal”? Ah, but he has an answer to that, too: “‘Grooming gangs’ is a euphemism for sex slavery, practiced on ‘Kaffir’ girls who are considered less than human & fair game. Justified by the perpetrators because the teachings of the sex predator & sadist who invented their religion”. Inflammatory hate speech, as well.
Who does he follow in such matters? “This talk by Mark Steyn is absolutely brilliant as a critique of modern Britain. It’s nearly half an hour but well worth listening to”. Steyn is another bigot, who claims that everyone in Europe will soon be living in a continent he calls “Eurabia”. Steyn, who likes to talk about “breeding”, falls back on the same excuse as Lennon: “My book isn’t about what I want to happen but what I think will happen”.
Only telling it like it is. Not racist, because Islam is a religion, innit? It’s only “the truth”. Some of their best friends are brown and black. And Jewish.
UKIP is now heading inexorably to the irrelevance of the far-right fringe. Good thing too.
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A professional, driven individual with thirteen years experience working pro-actively in high pressure,multi discipline journalism and corporate communications sectors specialising in EU politics. CIPR award winner and published writer in national broadsheet and tabloid papers. Experienced in planning, develo…
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When I made the leap to consulting three years ago, I left a very comfortable, very well paid corporate job behind. I made every single excuse on this list to persuade myself not to do it. I’m glad I talked myself into it. You can too. https://bit.ly/2FRCijb
Communications consultant for Matriks, achieving media coverage in tier one outlets and trade press. Working on B2B marketing projects and website content management. Event organisation for HNW charity events.
Communications Manager
Company NameEuropean Parliament
Dates EmployedJul 2015 – Feb 2017
Employment Duration1 yr 8 mos
LocationBrussels Area, Belgium
Instigating, developing and implementing creative media and stakeholder strategies in order to highlight the parliamentary and constituency work of two MEPs and line managing junior staff members.
Working on Security and Defence and Employment and Social Affairs committee: following legislation, managing voting lists and working with whips on voting decisions, parliamentary amendments, writing speeches, advising on policy lines and implications and negotiating with different parliamentary delegations and parties to achieve desired outcomes and retain important working relationships.
Leading a multimedia team on projects including the migrant crisis in Calais; exposing people trafficking gangs and collaborations with flagship programmes including Newsnight.
Providing the ‘lines to take’ for volunteers during the EU Referendum campaign and providing official guidelines on policy issues for senior politicians and activists as well as working with non party political groups such as ‘fishing for leave’ and ‘Veterans for Britain’.
Developing and executing a regional external and internal corporate communications strategy;
Producing and writing short films for inward and external facing projects including fundraising, campaign and awareness videos to increase awareness of issues across a broad range of portfolios. Managing relationships with production companies.
Achieving coverage in tier one publications, broadcast opportunities and new media. Pitching and achieving Op Ed articles for national daily and major regional publications. Writing feature articles on topical political issues.
Producing and overseeing a wide range of marketing materials including leaflets, campaigning tools and online information sources such as website content.
Producing written materials including: backgrounders, elevator pitches, messaging guidelines, lines to take, media alerts, releases, presentations and speeches.
Media (1)
This position has 1 media
Bill Etheridge MEP at leadership results
Bill Etheridge MEP at leadership results
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Journalist
Company NameBreitbart London
Dates EmployedOct 2014 – Jun 2015
Employment Duration9 mos
LocationLondon, United Kingdom
European and general reporter
Communications Manager
Company NameOffice of Nigel Farage MEP
Dates EmployedAug 2010 – Apr 2014
Employment Duration3 yrs 9 mos
LocationLondon / Brussels
Writing weekly articles for two tier one publications on behalf of Mr Farage. Regularly pitching and writing articles on a broad range of news relevant subjects working closely with editors to meet deadlines and editorial requirements.
Leading on all aspects of communications to highlight Mr Farage’s leadership of the UK Independence Party and as a Member of the European Parliament for the South East Region including the Eastleigh by election and the 2013 County Council campaign.
Maintaining excellent and continuing relationships with a broad range of media and stakeholders for the party including county council teams and staff, local business organisations and local schools and charities.
Developing and executing regional internal communications; advising on all aspects of media relations and likely fundraising and electoral impact across multi layers of government.
Producing written materials including: backgrounders, elevator pitches, messaging guidelines, lines to take, media alerts, releases, presentations and speeches
Managing events; providing media and crisis training for Mr Farage and other party figures in the South East.
I try to make every effort to NOT infringe copyrights in any commercial way & make all corrections of fact brought to my attention by an identifiable individual
a number of us who had been active campaigners for BreXit, indeed some of us had actively campaigned against the First Referendum in the early 1970s and even against any efforts to join the EU, or as it was then aesopianly named ‘The Common Market’, long before that – I for one had been opposed to Britain becoming a member of the so called ‘Common Market’ since the early 1960s.
My opposition to membership pre dated but was much resolved by living in Germany in C1962, though it does not pre date the British Government’s advocacy of 16-Apr-1948 (as I was living in India at the time in Karachi, pre partitition & Switzerland then Bahrain after partition! That I was only 2 when it was published is a minor detail!)) in Cmd.7388 being an official White Paper of The Foreign Office regarding/titled: “Convention for European Economic Co-operation”.
Some may remember the front page of The Times on the day of the Coronation of 1953 and the detailed article regarding the Common Market & Britain’s incolvement and naiscent membership (The day of the Coronation being a #Good day on which to bury bad news’ – similarly the most prescient speech by Enoch Powell on 25-Feb-1970 in the House of Commons during the Union of Europe debate CLICK HERE for the text It was largly after this speech that much effort was made to try to discredit Enoch Powell by dishonestly and selectively misrepresenting his Birmingham Speech of 20-Apr-1968 in an effort to try to portray him as some kind of reactionary racist, which he clearly was not if you read or listen to him delivering the speech CLICK HERE for full text & his contemporary delivery of the speech.
As I said many of us cautioned that the involvement of the overtly racist Ukip as a party and the untrustworthy used car salesman approach of the philandering, corrupt and libertine Nigel Farage, with his morally bankrupt and totally unethical efforts to prevent a Referendum to Leave the EU brought about by the efforts and organisation of The Petition of 225,000 signatures, by Nikki Sinclaire, that forced the debate of an IN/OUT Referendum in the House of Commons. Together with the clearly ‘dodgey’ and financially and morally dubious liar Arron Banks and the untrustworthy clique of low lifes they gatherted around them was unwise in the extreme and would eventually be very damaging to BreXit.
So it has proven with the clear involvement of Cambridge Analytica and Russian money + the dishonest methods of campaigning borrowed (bought) from the Trump campaign strategists such as Steve Bannon and Breitbart!
Leave.EU, Arron Banks and new questions about referendum funding
Revealed: Leave donor faces data investigation as first documentary evidence of Cambridge Analytica Brexit ‘work’ uncovered
Arron Banks,second from right, with Brittany Kaiser of Cambridge Analytica, far right, at the launch of Leave.EU. Photograph: Reuters
The Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating Leave.EU and its donor Arron Banks over possible breaches of the Data Protection Act.
The ICO has issued “information notices” against both Leave.EU – the referendum campaign headed by Nigel Farage – and its director, Banks. The notices – requiring organisations to provide the ICO with specified information within a certain time period – were issued in the same week as the ICO conducted raids last month on Cambridge Analytica’s offices. The notices are both part of Operation Cederburg – the commissioner’s year-long investigation into the use of data in the EU referendum. Failure to comply is a criminal offence.
Banks – who was by far the biggest funder of Brexit, providing £8.4m in donations and loans – confirmed on Friday that both he personally and Leave.EU had received “information notices”. In an email on Friday, Banks said they were “responding to it’” He said the ICO’s action was not an “investigation” but “an information request”.
In a separate development, the Observer has obtained an invoice that Cambridge Analytica issued on 14 December 2015 for £41,500 for work it undertook on behalf of Ukip. The invoice says the payment is for “analysis of Ukip membership and survey data and creative product development”, and it is issued on behalf of Cambridge Analytica LLC, the American entity, from its office in Alexandria, Virginia. This is the first documentary evidence that Cambridge Analytica did conduct analytics work on behalf of one of the Leave campaigns in the period before the referendum.
Banks confirmed to the Observer that he was also sent the invoice at that time too. He said he subsequently made a donation for the amount to cover the invoice to Ukip. A spokesman for Ukip, speaking to the Guardian last month, denied any payment for the work was made but he confirmed Banks had in fact made the donation after “new information had come to light”. He said that the party decided not to pass on the money to Cambridge Analytica.
Banks has long denied that Cambridge Analytica did any work for Leave.EU, as has Cambridge Analytica. The question is still the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Electoral Commission. In a written submission to the select committee for the department for digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS) last month, Banks said he had met Alexander Nix of Cambridge Analytica but that he had declined to take him up on his proposal. Cambridge Analytica said on Saturday that it “did some preliminary analysis as part of a proposal to work with Ukip, but no contract was agreed, payment was not made to CA, and the preliminary work was not delivered to Ukip.”
Brittany Kaiser, a former Cambridge Analytica director, who appeared on a panel at Leave.EU’s launch event, came forward to the Guardian last month and raised further questions about these claims. She said the company had completed around £40,000 worth of work for Ukip, using Ukip data, but agreed that the company had not been paid. She is expected to talk about this on Tuesday when she will testify to parliament as part of the DCMS committee into fake news.
Ukip has confirmed it handed its database over to Cambridge Analytica. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
A Ukip spokesman told the Observer on Friday: “We got the money from Arron [Banks]. But we never paid it to Cambridge Analytica. We didn’t think it was worth it. It was preparatory work, a pitch.”
He also confirmed that the party had handed over its database of roughly 40,000 supporters to Cambridge Analytica despite denying this to the Guardian last month.
Ukip had told the Guardian previously that Cambridge Analytica “saw” the data but a spokesman admitted the information – including telephone numbers, email addresses, ages, and other personal information among other things – was given to the company on a computer as part of what he described as “preparatory work”.
The spokesman said: “I asked everyone about this work and I was told CA pitched for it, Banks didn’t like it and he’d refused to pay for it. It’s now come out that he did actually make a donation to cover the cost of the work. But we never actually handed it over.”
The revelations raise a whole new set of questions about how the referendum was funded and whether strict rules on spending may have been broken. The Observer has seen evidence which suggests that a form of the Ukip data that Cambridge Analytica analysed and processed was passed to individuals in the Leave.EU campaign. And a donation of £42,000 from Better for the Country, Leave.EU’s registered company name, was recorded as a political donation to the party on the Electoral Commission’s site one week before the referendum on 16 June 2016. It was not registered as part of the campaign by either entity as a referendum donation or expense.
The unfolding of the Cambridge Analytica scandal has coincided with the final stages of the information commissioner’s investigation into the use of data in the referendum. Leave.EU’s operation has become one focus of the year-long investigation. Another resulted in the ICO’s raid on Cambridge Analytica. Damian Collins, the Tory MP for Folkestone, who is the chair of the DCMS committee, has told the Observer that both Britain’s electoral and data laws needed a radical and urgent overhaul. He said it was “ridiculous” that the ICO had to wait five days before being able to get a warrant to seize Cambridge Analytica’s computer servers and equipment.
Separately, the ICO investigation is believed to be trying to understand the relationship between Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance Services, the Bristol-based insurance company that Banks owns and that was the HQ for Leave.EU referendum campaign work. A spokesman said: “Leave.EU and Eldon have never shared any data. And Leave.EU has never shared any data with Cambridge Analytica whether in relation to the EU referendum or otherwise.”
The ICO may be asking questions because of previous comments Banks has made, including in an interview a year ago with the Observer. When asked about the use of Leave.EU’s database to send advertisements about his insurance products to campaign supporters, Banks said: “Why shouldn’t I? It’s my data.” When asked again last week, he said: “Leave.EU after the referendum campaign carried the occasional ad for insurance, so what?”
In an email on Friday he said: “Eldon has never given or used any data to Leave.EU. They are separate entities with strong data control rules. And vice versa.” He added: “Make any mistakes relating to the business and we will be most assuredly coming after the Guardian & you.”
To view the original article CLICK HERE
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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Ukip-vs-EUkip 