Official pro-European Union campaign is part-funded by Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup and Morgan Stanley and France’s Airbus and Eurostar, Electoral Commission figures show

Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs Credit: Reuters/Reuters

The campaign to keep Britain in Europe is being part-funded with hundreds of thousands of pounds foreign companies and some of America’s biggest banks, it has emerged.

Figures from the Electoral Commission show that Citigroup and Morgan Stanley donated £250,000 each to the official Britain Stronger in Europe group ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.

Two other US banks – Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan – donated £500,000 each to the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign before February when donations had to be declared.

Other donations came from France’s Airbus and Eurostar, which gave £7,500 each.

Lord Owen
Lord Owen Credit:  Jeff Gilbert/ Jeff Gilbert

The official figures also disclosed that Lloyds, the part-Government owned high street bank, lent the Remain campaign £20,000 at an interest rate of just one per cent.

Vote Leave, the anti-European Union campaign, pointed out that the US banks were played key roles in the global financial crisis.

Lord Owen, the Eurosceptic former Labour foreign secretary, said the fact that such large multi-nationals had donated to the In campaign showed the Vote Leave group was engaged in a “David and Goliath fight”.

He said: “The EU works in the interests of the elite - the one per cent - so it is entirely unsurprising to find that the campaign to keep us in the Union is financed by big banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.

“These figures show again that we are in a David vs Goliath fight, but it is one we are determined to win - for the good of the British people.

“They are the ones who pay the costs of uncontrolled migration - through lower wages, and unsustainable pressure on public services such as schools and hospitals.

“Now is the opportunity for them to strike back - and reclaim control of the £350 million we send to the EU every week, to spend it on their priorities instead.”

But figures showed that overall the Leave camp is winning the financial battle for donations against the Remain side in the EU referendum war.

Overall, anti-EU campaign groups raked in £8,180,425 in reportable donations, and £6 million in loans, between February 1 and April 21, giving a total of £14,180,425.

This was approaching double the £7,458,712 donated to the groups seeking to stay in the union during the same period, which, when coupled with loans, grew to £7,542,652.

The In Campaign, also known as Britain Stronger In Europe, took the biggest single chunk of money in donations with £6,883,684.

More than half of this sum came from Lord Sainsbury of Turville, the Labour peer, who donated more than £3.7million.

Other key donors for the Remain campaign included £750,000 from David Harding, a hedge fund manager and £500,000 from Lloyd Dorfman, the founder of Travelex.

In the quit camp, Leave.EU received £3.2 million from single donor Peter Hargreaves, as well as three loans worth £6million from Ukip supporter Arron Banks.

The combined £15,639,137 in donations for both sides in the Brexit battle covers amounts above £7,500 reported to the Electoral Commission.

A Britain Stronger In Europe spokesman brushed off the criticism. 

He said: “Some businesses, including financial institutions, are concerned about Britain leaving the EU and want to make a contribution to the campaign to keep Britain in Europe.

“We think it’s important to listen to what large UK employers say: that they would be less likely to invest in the UK if we were outside the EU and that our economy would be worse off.”

Labour released analysis claiming that many of the donors to the Leave campaigns were City financiers or had backed the UK Independence Party.

The Electoral Commission also struck off 11 pro-Brexit campaign groups from their official register of EU Referendum campaigners after “they were found not to meet the registration requirements”.

Grassroots Out said the groups had been set up as part of GO Movement’s attempt to be named as the officially designated campaign, but when that bid failed, the GO groups were no longer required.

 

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