Sputnik: So today the Brexit campaign group Vote Leave has been found guilty of breaking the electoral law and has been fined 61,000 pounds. How significance is this revelation and will it have much of an effect on Brexit?
Alan Sked: I don’t think it will have any effect on Brexit. For those of us in the Brexit camp, the Electoral Commission is regarded as biased and composed of superannuated establishment figures who as far as we know won’t look at the evidence and have chosen to believe the words of a highly unreliable witness. If there was any financial mismanagement in the referendum campaign, it seems to me the most outrageous thing was the Government spending an extra 9 million pounds on a propaganda leaflet of its own, delivered through every household. Whatever money the Leave campaign is supposed to have spent is small beer compared to what the government on behalf of remain, so I don’t take this very seriously.
READ MORE: UK Electoral Commission Fines Vote Leave Campaign Over Brexit Referendum
Alan Sked: Yes, I think the Remain campaign is now becoming desperate. Its focus, from now on, will be to get a 2nd referendum but there is no authority for that now in the House of Commons and I don’t think there is any support for it in the country as a whole. In any case, if there were a second referendum I think people would just vote for Brexit again.
READ MORE: May Accused of 'Dancing to the Tune' of Hardline MPs for White Paper Amendments
Sputnik: Last night we saw the government cave into hardline Brexiters by accepting their amendments to the customs bill in an effort to protect Theresa May from the second rebellion in 2 weeks. Despite surviving efforts to push her, Theresa May seems in an extraordinarily weak position… Do you think she will last as a leader?
Alan Sked: No, I don’t think she will I mean I think she’ll go quite quickly. I think the Conservative Party Conference in the autumn will be an all-mighty bloodbath – it should be very interesting to watch! I would have thought she was in a position to lead whatsoever, she accepted amendments which were entirely against Brexit plan and she denied this. She [Theresa May] now just seems to be a figure of fun for most people – they will only keep her going because they haven’t decided on who they’re going to replace her with.
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