The Labour wing of the Brexit movement made an £18,500 donation to UKIP during the referendum.
Labour Leave handed over the payment on June 21st – two days before the referendum vote.
The gift came despite very public efforts by UKIP to target Eurosceptic Labour swing seats, especially those in the north.
Help us stop a second referendum – please donate and share! #Brexithttps://t.co/pxjjTbjIZWhttps://t.co/jlB7RZQVbD
— Labour Leave (@labourleave) August 25, 2016
As the name suggests, Labour Leave’s parliamentary supporters are all Labour MPs, including prominent Brexiteers Gisela Stuart and Kate Hoey, and is chaired by Labour mega-donor John Mills.
The group and UKIP both said that the cash was to fund cross-party events during the campaign.
But going directly to the central UKIP party, rather than dedicated campaigning groups like Vote Leave or Grassroots Out is nonetheless unusual.
It was made public yesterday by the Electoral Commission, which publishes gifts to political parties once every quarter on its website.
Their data on the transfer of funds shows that Labour Leave made the transfer on June 20th, which was accepted by UKIP the following day.
It is not the first time Labour Leave has been linked to rival political parties – including the Conservatives.
The Left Foot Forward news site pointed out that former Tory donors had given some £200,000 to Labour Leave.
And early in the referendum campaign BuzzFeed noted that the Labour Leave website was registered to Dominic Cummings, a former Tory director of strategy and a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign body.
The same Labour Leave that was funded by @vote_leave and Tory donors? https://t.co/IapLmBomDV #brexit @owensmith2016 https://t.co/Uwwvfddqtt
— Left Foot Forward (@LeftFootFwd) August 24, 2016
The Labour Party refused to comment on the donation, though it pointed out that Labour Leave is an unofficial group.
A spokesman for Labour Leave said: “During the EU referendum campaign, Labour Leave co-organised rallies with other groups in favour of Brexit.
“These were cross-party events and included representatives from Labour, the Conservatives, UKIP, and other non-partisan organisations.
“Labour Leave agreed to share the administrative costs of these rallies. This administrative payment to UKIP was our share of those costs.”
UKIP also said the donation was for event funding, and added they were “happy” to work with the group in the referendum campaign.
