George Soros, the billionaire globalist and convicted insider trader, has been unmasked as a major backer behind a campaign to stop Brexit.
The Hungarian-American financial speculator, infamous as ‘The Man Who Broke the Bank of England’ for his role in Black Wednesday in the United Kingdom, has ploughed £400,000 into Gina Miller’s former Best for Britain campaign, The Telegraph reports.
This story has been updated. Read below for more.
Miller previously dragged the government through the courts to establish that it could not implement the British public’s vote to Leave the European Union without a second authorising vote in the Remainer-dominated Houses of Parliament. She also used Best for Britain to encourage tactical voting for parliamentary candidates with an “open mind” on Brexit during the 2017 snap election.
She had denied she wanted to actually reverse the referendum result, but leaked details of a national advertising campaign which will launch this month drops this pretence, with its explicit goal being to “wake the country up and assert that Brexit is not a done deal. That it’s not too late to stop Brexit.”
A leaked strategy document suggests the campaign will ape the tactics of the hard-left Momentum group, which serves as a kind of Praetorian Guard for socialist leader Jeremy Corbyn within the Labour Party.
The anti-Brexit campaign hopes to put “pressure” on Members of Parliament to reject whatever Brexit deal Theresa May’s government produces and vote for a second referendum in the same way Momentum pressures Labour MPs to obey Mr Corbyn.
They also intend to organise mass rallies and concerts with a “heavy youth focus”, presumably to provide the illusion of popular support for their activities.
Lord Malloch-Brown, a former Labour minister and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General; Stephen Peel, a financier and Goldman Sachs alumnus; and Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency, laid out the strategy to six major Tory donors at one of Soros’s sumptuous properties in Chelsea, hoping to win their support for the scheme.
“We must win the meaningful vote that Mrs May has promised… That is likely to trigger a new referendum, or election. We must prevail decisively, so reassuring Europe that our return will be permanent,” read a strategy group seen by the group.
“Those present were left in no doubt,” claimed Nick Timothy, the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff: “The intention is to topple the Government.”
“The campaign strategy begs all sorts of questions, and of many people,” the adviser points out.
“Will Best for Britain be transparent about its objectives and methods? Will it publish its financial arrangements, including not only its own donors but the funds it transfers to other, supposedly independent, organisations? How involved with this campaign are groups like the CBI and the TUC? Have they agreed to cooperate with Best for Britain? Will they receive financial support or other assistance from it?”
Timothy observes that Best for Britain, the European Movement, Vote Leave Watch, and Open Britain provide the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on EU Relations, co-chaired by Chuka Umunna MP, from the Labour Party, and Anna Soubry MP, from the Tory Party — and asks: “Does Soubry think it is appropriate for a Tory MP to chair an all-party group whose secretariat is provided by an organisation that wants to bring down a Tory government?”
The Government has yet to suspend the whip from Soubry or give any indication that it intends to act, however.
UPDATE 1600: Miller denies being linked to Best for Britain
Anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller denied links to Best for Britain and George Soros Thursday afternoon. City A.M. reports the remarks, in which she said of the Best for Britain group she was co founder of: “Contrary to misleading media reports published earlier today, I have absolutely no relationship with, or involvement in the work of, Best for Britain.
“I encourage Best for Britain, and all those keen to play their part in the Brexit debate, to be open and honest about what they stand for, whom they represent and by whom they are funded.”
Miller said claims that George Soros was funding “some of her recent work” was “ridiculous”, and that she uses her own funds and pro bono work from others, reports the paper.