The Vote Leave campaign has dropped its appeal against a £61,000 fine imposed on it for breaking electoral law on spending limits.
The officially designated campaign for leave for the EU referendum, was given the penalty in July of last year.
At the time, Vote Leave strongly denied the findings which they denounced as “wholly inaccurate” and later launched an appeal against the fine.
But in a statement issued on Friday, the Electoral Commission announced the appeal had been dropped, coinciding with Brexit Day, the day Britain was due to leaver the EU.
An Electoral Commission spokesman said: “Vote Leave has today withdrawn its appeal and related proceedings against the Electoral Commission’s finding of multiple offences under electoral law, committed during the 2016 EU referendum campaign.
“We found that it broke the electoral rules set out by Parliament to ensure fairness, confidence and legitimacy at an electoral event.
“We have been advised that Vote Leave has paid its £61,000 fine and look forward to receiving the sum in full.”
Vote Leave, which was supported by senior politicians including Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, failed to declare money it spent with controversial data firm Aggregate IQ, the Electoral Commission said in its report issued last year.
The commission said its investigation found “significant evidence” of joint working between Vote Leave – which has been fined £61,000 – and another campaign group, BeLeave, which was founded by student Darren Grimes.
Grimes was fined £20,000 and referred to the Metropolitan Police along with David Halsall, the responsible person for Vote Leave, “in relation to false declarations of campaign spending”, the Commission added.
Vote Leave accused the Commission of being “motivated by a political agenda rather than uncovering the facts”.
The investigation centred on a donation of almost £680,000 made by Vote Leave to BeLeave, a youth Brexit group.
The Commission found that BeLeave “spent more than £675,000 with Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave”, which should have been declared by the latter but was not.
This spending took Vote Leave over its £7 million legal spending limit by almost £500,000, the Press Association reports.
In a statement released to the Daily Mirror, the campaign said on Friday: “For almost three years, Vote Leave has successfully fought back against numerous allegations and conspiracy theories, spending almost £1m in the process.
“Since July 2018, we have been preparing our appeal against the Electoral Commission’s unwarranted and unsubstantiated finding and fines.
“Sadly, we now find ourselves in a position that we do not have the financial resources to carry forward this Appeal, even though we are confident that we would have prevailed on the facts in Court.
“We have therefore regretfully decided to discontinue our appeal.”