Vote Leave
Vote Leave is the official 'leave' cross-party campaign group seeking withdrawal from the European Union in the United Kingdom's referendum scheduled for 23 June 2016.
The campaign counts six members of the Conservative political cabinet in its senior ranks, and includes justice minister Michael Gove.
Being designated as the official leave campaign over Nigel Farage's Grassroots Out, Vote Leave will have access to up to £7 million it has raised itself, as well as £600,000 of taxpayer money to make it's case for leaving the European Union. [1]
Contents
Staff
- Lee Rotheram - Director of special projects, Vote Leave, works for John Hayes MP. [2]
Key figures
- Boris Johnson - Conservative Party, former Mayor of London (2012-16)
- Michael Gove - Conservative Party - Secretary of state for Justice, Lord Chancellor
- Chris Grayling- Leader of the House of Commons
- Gisela Stuart - Labour Party - Chair of Vote Leave
- Graham Stringer - Labour Party
- Douglas Carswell - UKIP
- Suzanne Evans - UKIP
- Lord Nigel Lawson - Former Conservative chancellor
- Lord David Owen - Former leader of the SDP [3]
British press biased in favour of Brexit
The press coverage on the UK's EU referendum is 'heavily skewed in favour of Brexit', a report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has shown. Of the articles analysed in the research, 45% were in favour of a Brexit vote, while just 27% were in favour of remaining. The research also revealed that Conservative Party figures were far more likely to be quoted by publications, with a 69% share to the Labour Party's mere 14.
The newspapers considered to have the least balance in terms of their coverage were the Daily Express and the Daily Mirror, with most other publications attempting to cover the alternative view from their designated position. [4]
Brexit MPs demand Cameron set departure date
Conservative Party backbenchers are threatening Prime Minister David Cameron with a potential leadership challenge if he does not set out a retirement date after the EU referendum. The news comes in the wake of the Treasury paper published on 23 May 2016, which forecast recession and the loss of 820,000 jobs in the result of Brexit, and which has deepened the unhappiness with Cameron felt by swathes of Tory backbenchers. The Daily Mail claims that some MPs have already written letters of no confidence to Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee.
If 50 MPs write letters of this kind, a vote of no confidence is automatically triggered, and would be the first since Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's resignation in 1924. A Tory MP told the Mail: 'If there is a narrow win for Remain, and he is still in office after 23 June, the only way he is going to avoid a vote of no-confidence is to name the date when he is going to go...People want a date when they know that he will be gone. There is real anger.'
The Sun says that discontent in light of the Treasury paper even extends into the government, with two ministers said to have told Brexit MPs they were considering resignation. Other sources say that Chancellor George Osborne will also be in the firing line: 'How the f*** are they going to put the party back together after all this? It’s at breaking point now. There are some very principled colleagues backing Brexit who are just spitting today. George has gone too far this time.' [5]
Cameron 'plotting against' Vote Leave
Vote Leave have accused David Cameron of being 'knee deep in a conspiracy' to remain in the EU, as letters were leaked showing the Prime Minister's correspondence with big business surrounding its potential role in the Remain campaign, long before his attempts at renegotiation were finished. The letter in question concerns Serco's chief executive, Rupert Soames, who wrote to Cameron regarding talks they had had in early February and his plan to request that FTSE 500 companies mention the risks of 'Brexit' in their annual reports. At this time however, Mr Cameron still entertained the idea that if his negotiations were unsuccessful, he could campaign for a leave vote alongside some of his Tory colleagues, but has since come out strongly in favour of Britain's continued membership.
Gisela Stuart, chair of Vote Leave has said the PM has 'serious issues' to answer, and observed the irony of the Chancellor George Osborne's mocking of Brexit campaigners as 'conspiracy theorists': 'George Osborne accused the Leave campaign of inventing conspiracies. Now we see that David Cameron is knee deep in one.' [6]
Vote Leave embroiled in race row
The Vote Leave campaign has come under fire for 'stoking the fires of prejudice' by arguing that Turkey's supposed joining of the EU by 2020 will pose a threat to the security of British citizens. The report by the Brexit campaign asserts that Turkey's higher levels of criminality and gun ownership offer evidence for this claim, and defence minister Penny Mordaunt made a statement in support of this.
A campaign statement said the following: 'Since the birthrate in Turkey is so high, we can expect to see an additional million people added to the UK population from Turkey alone within eight years.This will not only increase the strain on Britain’s public services, but it will also create a number of threats to UK security. Crime is far higher in Turkey than the UK. Gun ownership is also more widespread. Because of the EU’s free movement laws, the government will not be able to exclude Turkish criminals from entering the UK.'
Trevor Phillips, former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said that while immigration is certainly an issue that needs robustly debating, the leave campaign had hit a new low: 'There really isn’t any doubt that what they are appealing to here is straightforward prejudice. I can’t imagine what the sizeable, law-abiding, industrious Turkish community in the UK must feel when they hear this.This appears to be a straightforward admission that the Leave campaign has lost on every rational argument and now it is simply trying to stoke the fires of prejudice.' [7]
Donors
Recorded by the Electoral Commission:
Date | Name of donor | Amount |
---|---|---|
20/04/2016 | Patrick Barbour | £500,000 |
10/03/2016 | Peter Cruddas | £350,000 |
19/04/2016 | Terence Adams | £300,000 |
23/03/2016 | Michael Farmer | £200,000 |
07/04/2016 | Jeremy Hosking | £215,500 (three donations) |
24/03/2016 | Stuart Wheeler | £115,000 (two donations) |
21/03/2016 | David Lilley | £100,000 |
14/03/2016 | Michael Freeman | £148,000 (two donations) |
17/03/2016 | Robert Hiscox | £50,000 |
10/04/2016 | Tim Martin | £62,000 (two donations) |
17/03/2016 | Jon Moynihan | £50,000 |
28/04/2016 | WA Capital Ltd | £50,000 |
12/04/2016 | Harris Ventures Ltd | £50,000 |
17/03/2016 | Bristol Port Company | £50,000 |
08/04/2016 | Alan Halsall | £30,000 |
10/02/2016 | Quentin Skinner | £40,000 (two donations) |
01/04/2016 | Jardentome Ltd | £24,000 |
29/03/2016 | William Hobhouse | £20,000 |
23/03/2016 | Albert Wiegman | £28,000 (two donations) |
01/02/2016 | Alan Morgan | £15,000 |
23/02/2016 | Seaway Holdings | £15,000 |
29/02/2016 | Alexander Darwall | £15,000 |
17/03/2016 | Brian Kingham | £15,000 |
24/03/2016 | Rocco Forte | £12,000 |
18/04/2016 | Biwater Holdings Ltd | £12,000 |
29/02/2016 | Ivor Braka | £10,000 |
29/02/2016 | Shaftesbury Investments | £20,000 (two donations) |
14/04/2016 | Leslie Kaye | £10,000 |
04/04/2016 | Stanley Kalms | £10,000 |
07/03/2016 | Bruce McLain | £10,000 |
20/04/2016 | Matthew Ferrey | £10,000 |
22/03/2016 | David Leathers | £10,000 |
11/03/2016 | Andrew White | £10,000 |
16/03/2016 | John Moulton | £10,000 |
06/04/2016 | Michael Cowdray | £10,000 |
05/04/2016 | Mote Hall Limited | £10,000 |
Notes
- ↑ Heather Stewart, 'Vote leave official Brexit campaign eu referendum Boris Johnson', Guardian Online, 13 April 2016, accessed 16 May 2016
- ↑ Register of interests of members' secretaries and research assistants, 23 March 2016, parliament.uk, accessed 20 April 2016
- ↑ Brian Wheeler, Alex Hunt 'The UK's EU Referendum: All you need to know', 12 May 2016, BBC News, accessed 13 May 2016
- ↑ Samuel Osborne, 'EU referendum national press biased in favour of Brexit says study' 23 May 2016, Independent, accessed 23 May 2016
- ↑ Josh May, 'Tory Brexit MPs demand David Cameron give a resignation date', 24 May 2016, Politics Home, accessed 24 May 2016
- ↑ Charlie Cooper, 'EU referendum: Leaked letter 'shows how Cameron plotted against Leave', 17 May 2016, The Independent, accessed 17 May 2016
- ↑ Daniel Boffey, Toby Helm, 'Vote Leave prejudice Turkey EU Security threat', 21 May 2016, Guardian, accessed 23 May 2016
- ↑ Electoral Commission, Donation Search, accessed 12 May 2016