Leave.EU
 |
|
| Formation | July 2015 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Arron Banks, Richard Tice |
| Purpose | United Kingdom withdrawal from the European Union |
| Headquarters | Millbank Tower, London |
|
Region served
|
United Kingdom |
|
Membership
|
 88,012 (April 2017) |
|
Key people
|
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| Affiliations |
|
| Website | leave |
|
Formerly called
|
The Know |
Leave.EU is an organisation that campaigned for Brexit in the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. Founded in July 2015 as The Know, the campaign was relaunched in September with its present name to reflect altered wording in the referendum question.
The following month, the campaign announced it had registered the support of over 270,000 people, including over 1,000 local councillors from all major political parties. In February 2016 the campaign announced that it had over 500,000 supporters. The campaign, along with rival organisation Vote Leave, aimed to be formally designated as the lead campaign for the Leave vote by the Electoral Commission; however, on 13 April 2016, Vote Leave was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leaving the European Union for the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, 2016.
In the June 2016 referendum, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. By April 2017, the supporters for the Leave.EU campaign had fallen to 88,012.
The campaign was co-founded by Bristol-based businessman and UKIP donor Arron Banks, with property entrepreneur Richard Tice. It initially set about bringing together a range of different Eurosceptic groups under the umbrella of The Know. Banks stated a belief that the campaign could not be won from within the Westminster Bubble and that he would build a 'truly cross-party campaign for the people and not dominated by politicians.'
As the campaign was being renamed Leave.EU, UKIP leader Nigel Farage gave a public endorsement at the party's annual conference in Doncaster. Farage later clarified that he backed both Leave campaigns as they targeted 'different audiences.' The campaign was then reportedly refused access to the Conservative annual conference and the TUC annual congress, while being allowed to attend the Labour and Liberal Democrat conferences. American political strategy firm Goddard Gunster was appointed for its expertise in winning referendums. In November 2015 Banks wrote to the Vote Leave group proposing that the two groups should merge. He cited his concern that having two rival Eurosceptic groups was damaging the chances of a campaign victory.
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Wikipedia