Electoral Commission ‘reach settlement’ with Brexiteer Arron Banks after he threatened to sue

Leave campaigner Arron Banks. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA. - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images

The Electoral Commission and Brexit donor and campaigner Arron Banks have settled a dispute over his Leave.EU campaign.

The Electoral Commission had referred the Leave.EU co-founder to the NCA after his campaign was fined £70,000 for breaking electoral law.

The unofficial Brexit campaign during the EU referendum was said to have overspent by £77,380 – an extra 10% over the limit for non-party groups.

The commission at the time said the figure ‘may well have been considerably higher’, due to ‘incomplete and inaccurate’ spending claims.

But the NCA said it found ‘no evidence’ of criminal offences, and would take no further action, prompting Banks to threaten to subsequently sue the Electoral Commission over its announcement to refer him to the agency.


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The two sides are said to have since reached an ‘amicable settlement’ with press releases about Banks removed from their website.

‘The parties are pleased to have reached accommodation and to be able to put this matter behind them,’ said a joint statement by the commission’s chief executive Robert Posner, Banks and Leave.EU chief executive Liz Bilney.

Banks released a statement claiming he had been ‘completely vindicated’.

He said: ‘The statement completely vindicates me and our position.

‘As the NCA concluded the money came from myself and my business and it’s good to see the Electoral Commission concede this.’