THE elections watchdog has been urgently called in by The People’s Vote campaign to look into the possible non-disclosure of up to £500,000 in donations under the organisation’s previous management.
The Herald understands concerns reach over a yearlong period.
A spokesman for the pro-EU campaign said: “The People’s Vote is asking the Electoral Commission to look into possible non-disclosure of donations under the organisation’s previous executive management.
“The new interim management team, in place since beginning of November, has been conducting a fundamental review of the organisation’s systems, policies and processes.
“In the course of this review we became extremely concerned donations may not have been declared to the Electoral Commission. We immediately made the Commission aware of this.”
The spokesman said the campaign had been co-operating fully with the Commission and would be giving it “all the assistance it requires to discover if these donations were not declared”.
He added: “We will not be making any further comment while the Electoral Commission is looking into this matter."
The campaign for a People’s Vote has been in crisis since the start of the election campaign. Internal strife led to the departure of James McGrory, a former press aide to Nick Clegg, who was the campaign’s director, as well as Tom Baldwin, an ex-press aide to Ed Miliband, who was its communications director.
This led to other staff walking out with the support of such prominent supporters as Lord Mandelson and Alastair Campbell.
Roland Rudd, the campaign chairman, quit but last month the People’s Vote’s interim management launched a review, which uncovered possible discrepancies.
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