Leave are rattled by the Cambridge Analytica revelations

Isabel Oakeshott and Carole Cadwalladr debate Cambridge Analytica on the Marr Show. Pictures: BBC. - Credit: Archant

‘Exposure of Cambridge Analytica’s links with Vote Leave has obviously touched a raw nerve’ claims Anthony West.

By crying foul at the Observer and Channel 4 and also haranguing journalist Carole Cadwalladr in the process, all Isabel Oakeshott did on the Marr show was to betray her anxiety that something was obviously amiss as far as this aspect of the Leave campaign is concerned. Surprisingly, Andrew Marr was content to let her have a free rein in this.

In the school of Oakeshottism, the right-wing Brexit press, including her former employers at the Daily Mail, can pursue any pro-Brexit hobby-horse it likes, including questioning the judgment of the Supreme Court and the patriotism of Tory Remainer MPs.

On the other hand, when a paper of a more liberal persuasion unearths a major political scandal involving the Trump campaign and possibly the Leave one as well, she can accuse it of anti-Brexit bias and unbalanced reporting.

Anthony West, Folkestone

I was convinced there was something fishy about Cambridge Analytica and the Leave campaign until I read Boris Johnson calling the allegations ‘utterly ludicrous’. Now I’m utterly convinced!

Jason Scott

The main responses from Remainers to the Cambridge Analytics revelations seem to be either, at one end of the scale, investigation by the Electoral Commission or, at the other, demands for an immediate re-run of the referendum. Both of these are well intentioned but misguided.

The Electoral Commission has already had one pass at this and failed. The Brexit committee does not seem to have laid much of a glove on CA or the Leave campaigns either.

Only a detailed criminal investigation will determine whether democracy was subverted, and the extent.

That is when we should start talking about a re-run referendum.

At the moment even the sane Brexiteers I know say this is just another example of us trying anything to stop us leaving the EU.

Iain Rushton, Sheffield

Surely with all that’s coming out now there is sufficient evidence to raise money for a legal challenge?

Professor Edward Black

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