Some food for thought, as Remainers forget their own campaign's fine and concentrate on errors in the Leave campaign. Hope not Hate failed to declare expenditure of over £200k in the 2014 European Elections, and while the time may have run out for electoral petitions, there is the associated fraud and false accounting which remains open. There is also the associated VAT bill which remains unaccounted for. For an organisation which sings so loudly about the shortcomings of its opponent's Electoral Commission returns, it is remarkably deficient in its own, and can hardly claim not to have known.
Readers will notice undeclared expenditure to a company called Blue State Digital - we have mentioned them previously. Blue State Digital are the 'liberal' left's very own Cambridge Analytica, but nobody is much interested in reporting on them despite their client list including the Democrats, the Clinton Campaign, Labour, Barak Obama, Hope not Hate and a host of other left-leaning organisations.
Hope not Hate ‘drove
coach & horses’ though electoral & charity rules in Euro elections
30th
September 2015
Anti-UKIP group Hope not Hate spent almost double the legal
maximum on their campaign to halt the advance of Nigel Farage’s party in the
2014 European Elections, it was revealed today.
Despite strict spending limits for third party campaigners
in elections the group spent at least £320,000 in its unsuccessful campaign
while concealing the sources of its funding. The legal maximum it was permitted
to spend was £195,759 across the UK, with a limit of £159,750 in England[1].
Hope not Hate declared electoral spending of only £129,984.05 for the entire
campaign across the UK.
Researchers discovered that the bulk of the overspend related
to an 8 page wrap on the Daily Mirror issued shortly before polling day and
their failure to declare its true cost, which on its own was sufficient to
exceed the spending limit. According to Trinity Mirror group’s advertising rate
table, the cost of a 4 page wrap is £220,000[2],
and yet for a wrap double this size Hope not Hate were only billed £54,434
split over 2 invoices[3].
Under electoral legislation, spending has to be declared at
market value: where a discount is given over standard cost, this discount has
to be declared as a donation in kind[4].
Hope not Hate declared no donations for the entire campaign despite receiving a
discount of up to £ 165,566 on the cost of the wrap, and even this figure fails
to take into account their VAT liability which would amount to a further
£33,112.20.
Further problems were also apparent within the accounts
submitted to the Electoral Commission. These included a failure to include
spending to US based consultants Blue State Digital for electronic campaigning
from the beginning of the restricted period of the elections on 23rd
January through to March, which accounts for a further £ 7279.99 of undeclared
expenditure during February and £2,119.35 for January based on declared
expenditure[5].
Researchers also questioned the role of Ruth Smeeth, who
remains listed as secretary of Hope not Hate Limited on its Electoral
Commission registration despite having been elected as the Labour MP for Stoke
on Trent North in May 2015. She was previously the Deputy Director of Hope not
Hate[6]
and she was also listed as the company secretary of Hope not Hate Ltd at
Companies House from September 2012 until her resignation in March 2015[7],
although the formal notice of her resignation was not filed with Companies
House until the 3rd September 2015[8].
The Institute of Directors, quoting the Cadbury Report on Corporate Governance
of 1996, states that company secretaries’ duties include “The chairman and the board will look to the company secretary for
guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to
which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged”[9]
Smeeth was also listed at Companies House as the secretary
of Hope not Hate Educational Ltd, the charity arm of Hope not Hate until her
resignation in March of this year[10],
although this is not reflected in their Electoral Commission return[11].
Smeeth has been replaced by Elisabeth Pop, who is currently on secondment to
British Influence from Hope not Hate Educational, which is paying her salary
while she is there: something which would appear to be precluded by the
charitable status of Hope not Hate Educational.
Pop is spearheading Hope not Hate Educational’s ‘Together’
campaign. Ostensibly a function of the charitable arm, it has increasingly been
used to target UKIP. In Pop’s own words in 2014, “Thurrock has a long history of British National Party, National Front
and now UKIP activity support, so this is one of the most challenging areas in
which to work.... Building on our
community canvass in late August, which saw 350 people sign our TOGETHER
pledge, we encouraged voter turnout in a recent council by-election”[12].
Hope not Hate (under its previous registered name, Searchlight Educational
Trust) have previously been warned by the Charity Commission about the need to
keep a clear separation between charitable and campaign activities[13].
The report found that:
8. There was no
reference on the website to the Charity’s registered status, the charitable
objects were not stated and it was not made clear that the Charity is distinct
from the magazine and from SIS.
9. All three
organisations shared a telephone number and postal address. This caused further
confusion regarding the separate objects and activities of the charity and the
two companies.
10. The Charity had
yet to implement some of the recommendations previously made by the Commission,
during a Visit to the Charity in 2001.
While these issues were addressed, there has been
considerable backsliding since the split from Searchlight and the establishment
of Hope not Hate as an independent entity in 2011. This includes a running
together of the charity and the campaign organisation’s output on the Hope not
Hate website where it is all published under the single banner of ‘Hope not
Hate’. It is unclear – as both Hope not Hate Ltd and Hope not Hate Educational
Ltd hide their addresses behind PO Boxes – whether they share premises,
although as both PO Boxes are at the NW9 3RE Mail Delivery Centre it would
appear likely. Certainly Hope not Hate used an address at the WAC Arts Centre
during the 2014 European Election campaign which was sub-let from Hope not Hate
Educational[14]
and there was considerable cross-over of staff with the charity sub-contracting
its staff to Hope not Hate[15]
This is particularly pertinent to the ‘Together’ campaign.
Although Hope not Hate Educational is registered with the Electoral Commission,
it has failed to file any reports. Meanwhile, the ‘Together’ project is funded
at least in part by a £50,000 donation from US charity ‘Unbound Philanthropy’
according to accounts filed with the Charity Commission for 2014[16],
although Unbound Philanthropy’s own accounts show the amount actually donated
was £ 200,000[17]
on the 24th February 2014. Either way, it is questionable whether
Unbound Philanthropy is a permissible donor under UK electoral legislation as
it is registered with Companies House only as an overseas corporation with no
UK address[18]. Hope
not Hate Educational also received a grant of £120,000 from Unbound
Philanthropy in on 26th February 2012[19]
for work over the period 2012-2014, although this payment does not appear in
accounts filed by Hope not Hate Educational Ltd with either Companies House or
the Charity Commission[20].
Offences
In respect of the 2014 European Elections, there appears to
be (including VAT) £ 208,078.54 in unreported expenditure, of which £ 198,679.20
is also an unreported donation. Inclusion of these items in total reported
expenditure would bring the total expenditure to £338,069.52, against an
allowable expenditure across the UK of £195,759 – a total overspend of
£142,303.59.
|
Section
86(8) (making false declaration about value of property etc)
|
On summary
conviction: statutory maximum or 6 months
On
indictment : fine or 1 year
|
|
Section
94(2) or (4) (exceeding limits on controlled expenditure)
|
On summary
conviction: statutory maximum
On
indictment : fine
|
|
Section
98(4)(a) (failure of responsible person to deliver return and auditor’s
report to Commission)
|
On summary
conviction: Level 5
|
|
Section
98(4)(b) (failure to comply with requirements for returns)
|
On summary
conviction: statutory maximum or 6 months
On
indictment : fine or 1 year
|
|
Section
99(4)(a) (making a false declaration to Commission when delivering return)
|
On summary
conviction: statutory maximum or 6 months
On
indictment : fine or 1 year
|
This list covers only some possible offences under the
PPERA, and excludes the acceptance of money from impermissible donors via Hope
not Hate Educational Ltd. There are other offences under Charities legislation,
and further offences under the Companies Act relating to false accounting,
money laundering, making false statements etc.
[1] http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/179858/2014-EPE-campaign-spending-report.pdf Page 6 - S2.23 Spending limits for non-party
campaigners
[5] http://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/Api/Spending/Invoices/2378 Blue State Digital
invoice for May 2014
[8] http://tinyurl.com/nac3gav
- Smeeth resignation document at Companies House
[9] http://www.iod.com/mainwebsite/resources/document/companysecretary.pdf Page 2 - role of
company secretary
[17] https://www.unboundphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Full%20Grants%20list%206-8-15.xlsx
Hope not Hate Educational £200,000 grant appears on Line 19.
[19] https://www.unboundphilanthropy.org/sites/default/files/Full%20Grants%20list%206-8-15.xlsx
Hope not Hate Educational £120,000 grant appears on Line 68
[20]
http://tinyurl.com/q7odvqa (2012
Accounts) and http://tinyurl.com/otz5sej (2013 accounts) (both Companies House – the
same accounts are filed with the Charity Commission).
