EXCLUSIVE: The Metropolitan Police have passed a file of criminal evidence against @BorisJohnson and Dominic Cummings' Vote Leave campaign to the Crown Prosecution Service: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@BorisJohnson For us, this story began more than two years ago, when we got a tranche of Electoral Commission internal emails which revealed they had thought the Vote Leave/Darren Grimes relationship probably broke the rules. But they'd decided not to investigate: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@BorisJohnson This came on the back of stories by @carolecadwalla and @jimwaterson who had revealed the extraordinary donation from Vote Leave to Grimes's wee outfit in the first place.
@BorisJohnson @carolecadwalla @jimwaterson And it led to @JolyonMaugham bringing a case calling on the Electoral Commission re-opening their investigation, which the commission then did: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
@BorisJohnson @carolecadwalla @jimwaterson @JolyonMaugham One of the things the Electoral Commission emails had revealed was that the 'donation' to Darren Grimes's BeLeave almost all went direct to the Canadian data company AggregateIQ.
In March 2018, @shahmiruk blew the whistle speaking to @carolecadwalla about the exact nature of the relationship between Vote Leave, BeLeave and AggregateIQ: theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/m…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla In July 2018, the Electoral Commission ruled that Vote Leave had broken the law - overspending by funnelling money through BeLeave: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla Vote Leave tried to appeal this case at the High Court. But the judges ruled that they had indeed broken the law (though the BBC published Vote Leave's spin on this, leading to much confusion): opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla Vote Leave were referred to the Metropolitan Police by the Electoral Commission. But months later, nothing seemed to be happening, so we chased them up. We were told that an investigation hadn't yet been opened due to 'political sensitivities': opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla At Mayor's Question Time, @sianberry asked @SadiqKhan why the Met hadn't acted. He read out their response, saying they hadn't received the files for ages. It turned out what really happened was they hadn't bothered to collect them: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla @sianberry @SadiqKhan In July this year, 12 months after Vote Leave were found to have broken the law, the Met still hadn't reported any progress: opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocra…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla @sianberry @SadiqKhan And so I launched a petition calling for the cap on Electoral Commission fines to be abolished. The fines should match the crimes. 155,000 of you have signed it (so far!): you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/enfo…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla @sianberry @SadiqKhan Then, a year after we'd reported that the Met hadn't done anything yet, I rang my colleague Jim Cusick and asked him to chase them again. That was September. Today, we finally got an answer: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla @sianberry @SadiqKhan This kind of journalism is a lot of work. Stories have to be built over months and years, as the powerful forever kick them to the long grass. And that costs money. So if you want us to keep nipping at their heals, please contribute: support.opendemocracy.net/campaign/wcf?s…
@shahmiruk @carolecadwalla @sianberry @SadiqKhan (of course, sometimes, yesterday's long grass is today's election👌)
Throughout this whole process, Vote Leave and pals have worked very hard to spin this story away. They’ve been so successful that some prominent journalists seem to have genuinely believed them. Hopefully that ends today. #bbcqt
I have picked up quite a few followers off the back of this. *waves*. Hamish says hello. 
It’s easy to treat electoral law as though it’s a technocratic question. But the point is a simple one: should the rich, the powerful and the unaccountable be able to flood our elections with propaganda? Or should democracy be a debate among equals?
And let’s not forget - we still don’t know where Vote Leave’s pals, the DUP, really got their £435,000 Brexit donation from: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
Two more things we need to get our heads round about Vote Leave and law breaking. 1) Cambridge Analytica is what happens when you privatise military propaganda: opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
And 2) follow the Leave money and something becomes clear: hard Brexit is a project of disaster capitalists. They know exactly what they’re doing. opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-…
NEW: Boris Johnson knew about Vote Leave’s illegal overspend, according to senior MP - new revelation by @carolecadwalla and @TownsendMark theguardian.com/politics/2019/…
