On the 22nd April this year President Obama made a visit to London and was coaxed – indeed some would say coached – by David Cameron to promote the UK’s European Union membership and thereby attack the “Brexit” campaign.
Few seem to realise that Obama may have broken Electoral Law in the UK and could be prosecuted in court.
Although Obama said he had “not come here to fix any votes” it is unprecedented for a foreign head of State to interfere in a British election. It is all the more disgraceful that he should do so in a referendum in which the true British sovereigns – the voters – will decide whether the UK returns to being a self governing, democratic country. Doubly disgraceful because the United States would never dream of surrendering sovereign democratic control to a supranational power like the European Union. Indeed the USA has even refused to submit itself to the International Criminal Court – although it always cheers from the sidelines when others are indicted before that court!
Obama, on the question of UK EU membership said it “magnified” our role in the world. He most controversially said that if the UK left the EU it would “go to the back of the queue” when it came to concluding a trade deal with the USA. Needless to say his threats did not go down well with the British people – and have had the opposite effect from that intended.
As Nigel Farage of UKIP pointed out the Americans never use the word “queue” (they say “line”) and so the probability was that Cameron had written that section for him – or at least discussed what words to use!
The Justice Minister in Cameron’s Government, Dominic Raab, said his remarks were ludicrous and that “a lame duck President was trying to do Cameron a favour” and that “I have got no doubt that future US trade negotiators are going to look to other opportunities – I think the British will be first in the queue, not at the back of the queue.”
President Obama’s intervention appears to have been a major turning point in the Brexit campaign, doing the “Remain” campaign substantial damage and according to one survey of investors, making 30 per cent of them more likely to vote “Leave”.
So what does UK election law say? The relevant legislation is at Clause 105 of the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act of 2000. There a “permitted participant” is described as:
“a registered party by whom a declaration has been made under section 106 in relation to the referendum” or
“any individual resident in the United Kingdom or registered in an electoral register”
Now President Obama certainly did not register under any of those headings, nor is he a “trade union or a company which carries on business in the United Kingdom” which would permit him to spend time promoting or financing one side or another.
It is not clear whether anyone would wish to take action under UK electoral law against a “lame duck President” – although it would be possible under (now well established) mutual extradition proceedings to bring Obama across the Atlantic to answer the charges.
Doubtless the usual rule will apply – sweep under the carpet all matters affecting leading politicians but continue to allow a few voters to be punished for lesser offences!
Rodney Atkinson
June 2016