\n\t
\u201cWhistleblowing is a lifelong trauma, you lose everything.\u201d Shahmir Sanni learned this lesson the hard way. In 2018 he came forward with evidence which showed that Vote Leave, the official pro-Brexit campaign, had breached electoral spending laws. Carole Cadwalladr interviewed Shahmir, a recent graduate who had been volunteering for Vote Leave in the run-up to the Brexit referendum, for an exclusive story in the Observer<\/a>. His revelations formed the basis of an investigation by the Electoral Commission which found that Vote Leave had indeed broken the law. Vote Leave were fined \u00a361,000 and Shahmir\u2019s evidence handed over to the police for further investigation.<\/p> \t<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three years later and nobody has been held to account for the biggest breach in campaign finance law in modern British history. And the politicians who fronted the Vote Leave campaign are now running the country. Why does this matter now? Because earlier this month Boris Johnson attempted to rip up the rules on parliamentary standards to let one of his own MPs, who had flouted the rules on lobbying, off the hook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the government is pushing an Elections Bill through parliament which seeks to undermine the powers and independence of the Electoral Commission<\/a>, the same body which found Vote Leave guilty of breaking the law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a brazen attempt by the government to dismantle the very systems and institutions which are supposed to hold them to account. And they are doing it because they think they can get away with it. Because they got away with it before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n