Vote Leave and Veterans for Britain investigated over EU referendum spending

The Electoral Commission has launched an investigation into two Brexit campaigns over their spending on the EU referendum in 2016.

The elections watchdog said there were "reasonable grounds to suspect an offence may have been committed".

It will scrutinise spending submissions from Vote Leave Limited, Veterans for Britain and Darren Grimes, founder of the group BeLeave.

Despite assessments in February and March 2017 that resulted in no further action, the Commission revealed that "new information has come to light".

Among the questions being considered are whether Vote Leave submitted an incorrect spending return.

Mr Grimes and Veterans for Britain are also being examined over whether they did the same in relation to donations from the official 'Leave' campaign.

Bob Posner, the watchdog's director of political finance and regulation, said in a statement on Monday: "There is significant public interest in being satisfied that the facts are known about Vote Leave's spending on the campaign, particularly as it was a lead campaigner with a greater spending limit than any other campaigners on the 'Leave' side.

"Legitimate questions over the funding provided to campaigners risks causing harm to voters' confidence in the referendum and it is therefore right that we investigate."

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