The first big EU referendum battle: funding from Brussels

The Vote Leave campaign have found their first issue to fight the Stronger In campaign with: funding from Brussels. Brexit campaigners argue those working to keep Britain ‘In’ are embarrassed by the European Union — pointing out that the Stronger In campaign frequently refers to our relationship with Europe, not the EU. They intend to maximise this fault line by trying to link the campaign straight to the EU Commission.

As Guido reported last week, there is a link between Stronger In’s predecessor organisation (Interim Campaign Limited) in that Laura Sandys, the former Conservative MP for South Thanet, was named on official Companies House documents of the organisation and is now chair of the European Movement, which has received funding from the Commission. Although this might seem tenuous, the Leave campaign believe it’s something than can used against the In side — something I look at in a piece for POLITICO Europe today. Dominic Cummings, director of the Vote Leave campaign, says:

‘The BSE campaign was legally set up by an organisation funded by the Commission for the purpose of what its own legal founding documents describe as “propaganda”. These facts will be part of the debate until polling day.’

But the Stronger In campaign are vigorously denying any links between their campaign and the EU Commission. A source on the campaign says:

‘They are wrong, they are totally incorrect and we will challenge them on that. We will not be dragged into the gutter in this campaign.’

Luckily, we won’t have to wait long to see how this row develops. This evening, The Spectator is hosting a debate in central London on whether the EU is bad for business, featuring none other than Will Straw, the executive director of the Stronger In campaign, and Dominic Cummings, the head of Vote Leave. Both figures are punchy debaters and links to Brussels are likely to be a key topic of contention. The event is almost sold out but we have a few tickets left — you can purchase them here. If you can’t make it along, we’ll have a full report on Coffee House later.