John Danzig has a post on his blog (HERE) asking if the 2016 referendum result should be annulled. He has looked at something called the Venice Commission, an advisory body to the Council of Europe - a human rights organisation founded in 1949 and not to be confused with the EU although all EU member states are also Council members.
Danzig has looked at the Venice Commission's code of practice on Referendums (HERE). On page 19, paragraph 24 is this:
"National rules on both public and private funding of political parties and election campaigns must be applicable to referendum campaigns (point II.3.4.a). As in the case of elections, funding must be transparent, particularly when it comes to campaign accounts. In the event of a failure to abide by the statutory requirements, for instance if the cap on spending is exceeded by a significant margin, the vote must be annulled. It should be pointed out that the principle of equality of opportunity applies to public funding; equality should be ensured between a proposal’s supporters and opponents (point I.2.2.d)"
I don't for one millisecond think the 2016 referendum will be annulled because both Vote Leave and Leave.EU apparently overspent - although it's not entirely impossible. The alleged overspend at about 10% or so may not be "significant" anyway but if it turns out to be larger or other rules were broken, then annulment is not out of the question.
Over at the LSE though (HERE) Ewan McGaughey is arguing that "fraud unravels everything". I don't think this is going to happen - for the following reason. The referendum was advisory. Whatever the result and however obtained, the government was not bound to accept the advice - but it did.
What the overspend did do was render the advice suspect and it perhaps increases the chance of the legal action challenging the government to show where the "decision" was made and by whom - see Wolchover - which is subject to a legal challenge in the high court next month. I am sure the lawyers will make good use of the apparent overspend.
