Vote Leave Excuses FAWKED

After news emerged that Vote Leave had been confirmed to have been breaking the law during the 2016 EU referendum campaign, it was only a matter of time before the group’s frankly batshit principal Dominic Cummings went into spin cycle mode and pretended that some form of alternate reality applied to Himself Personally Now.

Milk, no sugar, hold the smears

And so it came to pass that the chosen conduit for Dom’s out-there excuses was the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, who have brought readers the imaginatively-titled “Electoral Commission Emails Reval They Refused To Speak To Vote Leave”. As befits any creation of Fawkes teaboy Alex “Billy Liar” Wickham, this is a complete and utter pack of lies.

Wickham, who has been recruited by BuzzFeed News, who may be getting a little nervous at the revelation of his singularly wayward back catalogue, continued “After finding Vote Leave guilty of breaking electoral law this morning, the Electoral Commission are claiming that officials from the Brexit campaign refused to attend interviews. Yet this email from Louise Edwards, the Tory-hating Electoral Commission boss, to lawyers for the Vote Leave officials says otherwise”. And what, pray, does that email say?

Cummings. Goings we know not where

It says “We have not spoken to your clients as part of that investigation because we are satisfied was have sufficient evidence to draw conclusions without speaking to them”. But without the context - we never do get that from The Great Guido, do we? - no conclusion can be drawn. Wickham moans “how on earth can they reasonably find an organisation guilty of breaking the law without hearing their side of the story?” but knows full well that Vote Leave refused to cooperate with the Electoral Commission.

Then comes a reply from the EC to Cummings himself, betraying the identity of the Fawkes informant. “This was Louise Edwards excuse to Vote Leave boss Dominic Cummings for failing to speak to him, emailed yesterday. Essentially, she is arguing the Electoral Commission only made claims about Vote Leave as a whole so don’t need to speak to the key players involved. Which does not seem to be justice in any sense” bleats Wickham. But again, there is no context. And there won’t be any.

If the Fawkes rabble want to be a credible player, they should go back to Cummings and force the wacko SOB to release the entire thread of emails - but they won’t, and neither will he. Like the Fawkes claims that “the Remain campaign was at it too”, it’s just selective framing to fit the headline. There will not be full disclosure.

And without full disclosure, no credibility will attach to this latest dishonest intervention. So when Wickham lamely suggests “Real possibility the Commission could be sued here”, he is talking out of the back of his neck. Dominic Cummings and his pals are playing Ron Hopeful on the off-chance that one or two gullible politicians and pundits will believe them.

The only result of this lame slice of Wickham dishonesty is that BuzzFeed News will be that little bit more nervous about what happens when “Billy Liar” joins them.

After all, one whopper like that and he could screw their brand for good. Another fine mess, once again.