There seems to be a good deal of comment in the Sunday papers about the way the referendum campaign is developing. For anyone outside of the Westminster bubble it must all seem fairly confusing. It is certainly confusing to me and I go down to Westminster every week Parliament is sitting.
Basically, the position is this. There are two main groups trying to build up an organisation that is sufficiently strong to meet the criteria laid down by the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission will designate just one organisation as the Lead Campaigner. They then get taxpayers money to promote their side of the argument and other special rights during the campaign. The two main groups are VoteLeave and Leave.EU – the first is mainly Conservative the latter mainly UKIP. I should stress that this is very much a simplification but it gives you an idea of how to interpret developments.
I, and indeed many others, have argued that the two campaigns should come together as soon as possible. The problem is despite the best efforts of many they have refused to do so. The position has been complicated in recent weeks by the emergence of Grassroots Out which claims to be involved with neither side but is only interested in campaigning.
It is all very complicated. I have simply said I will continue to make the case for us to leave the EU and I will work with anybody and share a platform with anyone to make that case. I really do not care who gets the designation as long as the arguments for leaving are properly presented.
David Nuttall 