The establishment ‘Vote Leave’ campaign, which represents soft-eurosceptics in the Westminster political establishment, is in chaos once again as it was announced last night that the organisation is putting as its figurehead the ageing Lord Lawson, while troublemaker directors Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings have “stepped down” from the board.
Over the past week, Vote Leave has found itself under increasing scrutiny from its donors, and Breitbart London understands that yet another offer from Leave.EU chief Arron Banks for a merger was dismissed.
Following an attempted coup against Mr. Elliott and Mr. Cummings, the news emerged last night that the organisation would be making “material changes”. The organisation is also understood to be spending more on staff salaries than actual campaigning.
The Vote Leave Take Control organisation was predicted to be a farce upon its launch by this site’s editor in chief, Raheem Kassam. The Westminster establishment quickly rallied around the group, mocking the grassroots Leave.EU opposition organisation. But Mr. Kassam’s instincts may be proved correct as it emerges that Vote Leave is, once again, in a state of tumult.
Conversely, the Leave.EU campaign is continuing to grow and attract interest and donors.
Commenting on his frustrations with the rival leave campaign, Arron Banks, co-founder of Leave.EU told Breitbart London: “There has been a lot of media coverage over the last few days about the need for a merger between Leave.EU and Vote Leave.
“I wish to clarify that I have written to Vote Leave on four occasions, had lunch twice and spoken to the CEO Matthew Elliott and Chairman John Mills about a potential merger.
“On the last occasion we offered John Mills the chairmanship of a merged entity and Matthew Elliott CEO in an attempt to break the deadlock.
“It appears Vote Leave board has taken its own action to remove or control Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings.
“We hope that the Vote Leave board is now open to what the majority of people want , a United Brexit campaign.”
Andy Wigmore, head of communications for Leave.EU, told the Independent : “They were the stumbling block, everyone around the table at a meeting last week was in agreement that we should work together, apart from Matthew and Dominic,” he said. “Every party is involved in this who wants leave, we should all be pushing for the same thing. Merging the two groups is the strongest way to win a leave vote but if they still won’t merge then we leave them behind.”