Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union in the Referendum.
Vote Leave was founded in October 2015 by political strategists Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings as a cross-party campaign. It involved Members of Parliament from the Conservative Party, Labour Party and the sole UKIP MP, Douglas Carswell along with MEP Daniel Hannan and the Conservative peer Nigel Lawson. Labour MP Gisela Stuart served as chairman and Leader of the Vote Leave Campaign Committee as Co-Convenor with Michael Gove MP, of the Conservatives. The campaign was also supported by a number of prominent politicians; including outgoing Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who became a key figurehead for the Vote Leave campaign. A number of Vote Leave principals, including Douglas Carswell, Michael Gove, Bernard Jenkin and Anne-Marie Trevelyan, were also members of the influential IPSA resourced European Research Group.
Vote Leave co-operated with Labour Leave, Conservatives for Britain and Business for Britain throughout the referendum campaign.
At the referendum held on Thursday 23 June 2016, the majority of those who voted, voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, which was equivalent to a 51.9% share of the vote (a 3.8% margin); which set into motion the steps to be taken for British withdrawal from the European Union. In September 2016, Change Britain was formed to act as a successor organisation.
On 23 June and over the following days, both Vote Leave and its rival organisation, "Britain Stronger in Europe", were excoriated by sections of the media and academia for a campaign described by the Electoral Reform Society as "dire", which left the public seriously lacking proper information. On 17 July 2018, Vote Leave was fined £61,000 and referred to the police for breaking electoral spending laws.
History
The Vote Leave campaign was launched on 8 October 2015 with support from MPs including Labour MP Kate Hoey and UKIP MP Douglas Carswell, and supporters from the business world including CMC Markets founder Peter Cruddas, entrepreneur Luke Johnson and businessman John Mills, the Labour Party's biggest individual donor. Matthew Elliott, founder and former chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance and Big Brother Watch as well as the campaign director of the successful NOtoAV campaign in 2011 was announced as the chief executive of Vote Leave.
On 2 November 2015, Vote Leave called on the British Polling Council to investigate "serious violations" of the Council's rules by polling organisation YouGov in a survey conducted in 2013 for the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). The poll appeared to show that 8 out of 10 businesses backed Britain's continued membership of the EU. Vote Leave claimed that the poll was "wholly unrepresentative" of Britain's businesses due to skewed sampling in the poll and alleged that the research had "caused the public to be misled about the views of British businesses on the EU for nearly two years." The British Polling Council's formal response concluded that YouGov had "not provided an adequate explanation of the sampling procedures that had been used to conduct the survey" at the time of publishing the survey. Vote Leave described the CBI as the "Voice of Brussels" and also published research allegedly showing that the CBI had received over £1million in funding from the EU over the previous six years.
Vote Leave submitted an official statement in November in response to a House of Lords inquiry on the relationship between EU membership and UK science, calling for science research to "replace EU membership as a fundamental priority for national policy." An analysis by Vote Leave, published in December 2015, found that the costs of EU membership outweighed the benefits of the EU's single market as reported in the European Commission's own figures.
On 3 February 2016, Vote Leave announced that former Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson would be taking over as interim chairman of the Vote Leave board. Lord Forsyth, the former Secretary of State for Scotland, was also appointed to the board at this time.
On 20 February 2016, following David Cameron's announcement that the EU referendum would take place on 23 June 2016, five Cabinet ministers publicly declared their support for Vote Leave: Michael Gove, the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary; Chris Grayling, Leader of the House of Commons; Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions; John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary; Theresa Villiers, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, as well as cabinet-attending minister Priti Patel, the Minister of State for Employment. This was followed by an announcement on 21 February by the then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, that he would also be backing the Vote Leave campaign. Boris Johnson subsequently became one of the key figureheads for Vote Leave throughout the referendum campaign.
On 15 June 2016, Vote Leave presented its roadmap to lay out what would happen if Britain left the EU.EU referendum: Vote Leave sets out post-Brexit plans BBC News, 15 June 2016 The blueprint suggested that Parliament would pass laws: Finance Bill to scrap VAT on tampons and household energy bills; Asylum and Immigration Control Bill to end the automatic right of EU citizens to enter Britain; National Health Service (Funding Target) Bill to get an extra 100 million pounds a week; European Union Law (Emergency Provisions) Bill; Free Trade Bill to start to negotiate its own deals with non-EU countries; and European Communities Act 1972 (Repeal) Bill to end the European Court of Justice's jurisdiction over Britain and stop making contributions to the EU budget.
Campaign Committee On 13 March 2016 Vote Leave announced the Vote Leave Campaign Committee, the public facing governing body that meets weekly to set the campaign strategy for Vote Leave. This coincided with the announcement of Labour MP Gisela Stuart as the new chairman of Vote Leave (replacing Nigel Lawson) along with Gisela Stuart and Michael Gove as Co-Conveners of the Committee. The Vote Leave Campaign Committee was
Michael Gove (Co-Convener), Conservative MP for Surrey Heath, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Gisela Stuart (Co-Convener), Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston Matthew Elliott (chief executive) Dominic Cummings (Campaign Director), former government adviser Boris Johnson, Conservative MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, former Mayor of London Steve Baker, Conservative MP for High Wycombe Douglas Carswell, then a UKIP MP for Clacton Ian Davidson, former Labour MP for Glasgow South West Nigel Dodds, Democratic Unionist Party MP for Belfast North, Deputy Leader of the DUP Iain Duncan Smith, Conservative MP for Chingford and Woodford Green Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead, former Minister of Welfare Reform Lord Forsyth, former Conservative MP for Stirling and Secretary of State for Scotland Liam Fox, Conservative MP for North Somerset, former Secretary of State for Defence Chris Grayling, Conservative MP for Epsom and Ewell, Leader of the House of Commons Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP for South East England Paul Keetch, former Liberal Democrat MP for Hereford Nigel Lawson, former Conservative MP for Blaby and Chancellor of the Exchequer Andrea Leadsom, Conservative MP for South Northamptonshire, Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change John Longworth, former director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). Longworth was suspended from his role at the BCC following his public comments in support of Brexit on 3 March. Lord Owen, former Labour and SDP MP for Plymouth Devonport and Foreign Secretary Priti Patel, Conservative MP for Witham, Minister of State for Employment Dominic Raab, Conservative MP for Esher and Walton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Justice Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton Theresa Villiers, Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland John Whittingdale, Conservative MP for Maldon, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Board
The Vote Leave board was legally responsible for the campaign.
Gisela Stuart (chairman), Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston John Mills (Deputy chairman), founder and chairman, JML Arabella Arkwright Martin Bellamy, CEO, Salamanca Group Peter Cruddas, founder, CMC Markets Suzanne Evans, UKIP spokeswoman Lord Forsyth, former Conservative MP for Stirling and Secretary of State for Scotland Alan Halsall, former chairman, Silver Cross Daniel Hodson, former chief executive, LIFFE Bernard Jenkin, Conservative MP for Harwich and North Essex Jon Moynihan, former executive chairman, PA Consulting Group Graham Stringer, Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Conservative MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed Stuart Wheeler, founder, IG Index Victoria Woodcock (company secretary) Christopher Montgomery, former Westminster chief of staff of the Democratic Unionist Party
Staff
Paul Stephenson, Communications Director Stephen Parkinson, Organiser of the ground campaign Alex Hickman, Outreach Director Robert Oxley, Head of Media James Starkie, Head of PR and Regional Press Lee Rotherham, Director of special projects Oliver Lewis, Director of Research Gurjit Kaur Bains, Outreach Assistant Hugh Bennett, Correspondence Officer Thomas Borwick, Chief Technical Officer Ian Davidson, Labour Co-ordinator Nic Conner, Event Liaison Co-ordinator Mark Hamilton, Head of Major Events Richard Howell, Policy Analyst
Supporters
JCB chairman Anthony Bamford donated £100,000 to Vote Leave Neville Baxter, director, RH Development John Caudwell, entrepreneur and philanthropist Joseph William Foster, founder of Reebok Michael Freeman, co-founder, Argent Group Oliver Hemsley, CEO, Numis Securities Robert Hiscox, honorary president, Hiscox Insurance Alexander Hoare, managing partner, C. Hoare & Co John Hoerner, former chief executive of Central European Clothing, Tesco Luke Johnson, chairman, Patisserie Valerie Crispin Odey, founding partner, Odey Asset Management Andrew Roberts, historian
Members of Parliament supporting the organisation include UKIP MP Douglas Carswell, Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins, Conservative MPs Steve Baker, Bernard Jenkin and Owen Paterson, and former Ulster Unionist Party leader Lord Trimble.
Relationship with other groups
Leave.EU and Grassroots Out
Vote Leave focused on economic arguments against the European Union, while Leave.EU made more of immigration-related issues. This led to situations where Vote Leave and Leave.EU statements have contradicted each other, and sometimes to direct attacks by one pro-Brexit group against the other. Infighting within Vote Leave and Leave.EU, as well as disillusion with Cummings, led to the formation of Grassroots Out (GO). Nigel Farage was a key member of the organisation and of Leave.EU and UKIP donor Arron Banks was a major donor to GO, whereas Vote Leave was a mainly Conservative campaign.