I was elected in 2018 as the Labour’s Cllr, Puru Miah for Mile End Ward to the Town Hall. Before I was elected I was Momentum’s National Treasurer and one of the responsible members dealing with the electoral commission for Momentum, a grassroots movement, established to support Jeremy Corbyn as party leader of the Labour Party in the 2017 snap General Election.
My above role was separate from my roles in London as an Executive Member of the local Tower Hamlets Labour Party or my legal qualifications work, full-time work at Thames Magistrates.
Below is my statement:
“I welcome the Electoral Commission’s finding that Momentum did not overspend in the 2017 general election, despite the regulated spending limit being just £37,920.
It is understandable that the Electoral Commission would investigate Momentum – we managed to do a lot with very little. Our general election campaign was powered by tens of thousands of volunteers who helped out in our office, ran training sessions and knocked on doors in marginal constituencies across the country. Volunteers rather than big money meant we were able to knock on 1.2 million doors on election day, reach one in three UK Facebook users with viral videos and swing a series of key marginal constituencies for Labour.
The Electoral Commission did find some mistakes in our reporting and some clerical errors. This isn’t surprising for a new organisation which at the time was less than two years old and had 25,000 members and 150 local groups. The Conservatives, Tory’s, council’s opposition member Cllr Peter Golds party are, likely employ more lawyers than Momentum have staff, and even getting close to fully complying with these complex regulations for a volunteer led, social movement organisation is a herculean task.
The Electoral Commission did find some mistakes in our reporting and some clerical errors. This isn’t surprising for a new organisation which at the time was less than two years old and had 25,000 members and 150 local groups. The Conservatives likely employ more lawyers than Momentum have staff, and even getting close to fully complying with these complex regulations for a volunteer led, social movement organisation is a herculean task.
For example, the law back dates regulations to a year before election day. This means organisations running campaigns in that period can be fined or even prosecuted. In the snap election, this left us in the absurd situation of asking volunteers in local groups to submit receipts for booking community halls and buying refreshments a year before polling day. All for a snap election they did not know was going to take place, in an effort to comply with regulations they did not know they would be subject to.
The level of detail required under the law was often comic. In one instance, the Electoral Commission queried the purchase of a pizza, wanting to know what percentage of the pizza was eaten by staff members and what percentage by volunteers.
These gagging laws, introduced by the Conservatives and opposed at the time by hundreds of campaign groups, are deliberately designed to leave big money unregulated whilst throttling volunteer led, campaigning organisations with burdensome regulation which in some cases is almost impossible to follow.
We’re proud to be funded by small donations and powered by tens of thousands of volunteers, and we believe that our democracy should serve the many. These laws only help big corporate donors who want to funnel dark money into our political system.
I also believe the fines levelled are disproportionate. The fines and associated staff time will cost Momentum more than our entire regulated campaign spend during the election. Not only did Momentum cooperate fully with the Electoral Commission, but these offences are incredibly minor when compared with other political organisations. There were also various mitigating circumstances which should be taken into account. Momentum was a new, volunteer led organisation and this was the first time we had to follow the regulations. We also could not have been expected to know an election was coming, with the Fixed Term Parliament Act supposedly fixing a date for elections and Theresa May repeatedly stated that she was not going to call a snap election.
We won’t make these mistakes again. In accordance with the wishes of the Electoral Commission, we have put in place comprehensive systems and processes so we can fully adhere to the regulations next time and be ready for an election if it’s called tomorrow.
Adhering to these regulations is costly, and that’s why we will launch a fundraising drive to pay these harsh fines and to ensure we’re ready to win the next election for Labour.”
NOTES
On the infractions:
The Electoral Commission initially investigated Momentum because it suspected overspending. The Election Commission found no evidence of overspending, despite the regulated spending limit being just £37,920. However, as a result of the investigation they did find some filing mistakes and clerical errors. The Electoral Commission found a number of infractions relating to three key areas:
- The Electoral Commission found mistakes in our 2017 election spending return and donations report. Momentum revised both its donation report and spending return several times in response to advice and questions from the Election Commission, as well as providing them with all of our bank statements and financial information to ensure the Commission could review everything we had spent during the regulated period. Whilst we recognise there were mistakes and accept the Election Commission’s findings, we disagree with the Election Commission on a number of points, particularly around the formulas which should be used to calculate the split between regulated and unregulated spending on overheads such as office cleaning or payroll processing.
- Momentum failed to correctly report a £10,000 donation from July 2016. This was an administrative oversight. Momentum has now reported this donation correctly and the Election Commission has fully accepted the report.
- Momentum incorrectly reported an £8,000 donation. When this donation was re-reported it was reported late and incurred a fine.
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