Arron Banks is owed an apology
I am no fan of Arron Banks.
I utterly disagree with many of the things he said and did during the Referendum campaign.
That does not stop me from feeling unease at the way he has been treated by the media and I think there are a fair number of people who owe him an apology.
When the Electoral Commission referred Mr Banks to the National Crime Agency in 2018 on the basis that they said they had "reasonable grounds to suspect" that he might have broken electoral laws concerning on the real source of money he donated to campaigns to leave the EU, there was wall to wall coverage in the press.
When the National Crime Agency cleared Mr Banks on all these charges last year, saying that there was, quote "no evidence" to support them, this did not get anything like the same level of publicity.
And if the National Crime Agency says there was no evidence, one has to ask why the Electoral Commission thought they had reasonable grounds to ask for an investigation.
There has been next to no coverage of the fact that this week the Electoral Commission has accepted the findings of the National Crime Agency in respect of the charges they had made against Arron Banks and Liz Bilney, the CEO of Leave.EU.
I learn from Guido Fawkes that
"The Electoral Commission considers it was right to refer this matter to the NCA for further investigation, but confirms that it accepts
E.g. no evidence that any of the money for Leave.EU came from Putin.
The official Electoral Commission statement says
"The National Crime Agency, after its own investigation, has
(i) concluded that there is no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed under PPERA or company law by any of the individuals or organisations referred to it by the Electoral Commission; and
(ii) has stated that it has not received any evidence to suggest that Mr Banks and his companies received funding from any third party to fund the loans subject to the investigation, or that Mr Banks acted as an agent on behalf of a third party.
The Electoral Commission accepts these conclusions."
I'm really not impressed that news sources which gave such a lot of publicity to the allegations against Arron Banks have given so little publicity to the fact that even the body which brought the charges now accepts that there was no evidence for them.
You don't have to like Mr Banks to think that quite a few people owe him an apology.
I utterly disagree with many of the things he said and did during the Referendum campaign.
That does not stop me from feeling unease at the way he has been treated by the media and I think there are a fair number of people who owe him an apology.
When the Electoral Commission referred Mr Banks to the National Crime Agency in 2018 on the basis that they said they had "reasonable grounds to suspect" that he might have broken electoral laws concerning on the real source of money he donated to campaigns to leave the EU, there was wall to wall coverage in the press.
People should have been able to reasonably assume that the Commission would only do and say something like that if they actually had some evidence to back it up. And a lot of people, most of whom should have known better spoke and wrote as if the case was not just made but proved.
I've lost count of the number of times I have seen the view expressed, including in posts on this blog's comment threads, my Facebook page, and just about every other social media channel I can think of, that criminal behaviour and breaches of the rules by Mr Banks and Vote Leave invalidated the result of the referendum.
I've lost count of the number of times I have seen the view expressed, including in posts on this blog's comment threads, my Facebook page, and just about every other social media channel I can think of, that criminal behaviour and breaches of the rules by Mr Banks and Vote Leave invalidated the result of the referendum.
When the National Crime Agency cleared Mr Banks on all these charges last year, saying that there was, quote "no evidence" to support them, this did not get anything like the same level of publicity.
And if the National Crime Agency says there was no evidence, one has to ask why the Electoral Commission thought they had reasonable grounds to ask for an investigation.
There has been next to no coverage of the fact that this week the Electoral Commission has accepted the findings of the National Crime Agency in respect of the charges they had made against Arron Banks and Liz Bilney, the CEO of Leave.EU.
I learn from Guido Fawkes that
"The Electoral Commission considers it was right to refer this matter to the NCA for further investigation, but confirms that it accepts
(a) the NCA’s conclusions that it found no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed under PPERA or company law by Mr Banks or Ms Bilney; and
(b) the NCA had not received any evidence to suggest that Mr Banks or his companies received funding from any third party."
E.g. no evidence that any of the money for Leave.EU came from Putin.
The official Electoral Commission statement says
"The National Crime Agency, after its own investigation, has
(i) concluded that there is no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed under PPERA or company law by any of the individuals or organisations referred to it by the Electoral Commission; and
(ii) has stated that it has not received any evidence to suggest that Mr Banks and his companies received funding from any third party to fund the loans subject to the investigation, or that Mr Banks acted as an agent on behalf of a third party.
The Electoral Commission accepts these conclusions."
I'm really not impressed that news sources which gave such a lot of publicity to the allegations against Arron Banks have given so little publicity to the fact that even the body which brought the charges now accepts that there was no evidence for them.
You don't have to like Mr Banks to think that quite a few people owe him an apology.
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