This petition was submitted during the 2015-2017 parliament
Rejected petition We believe there should be equal spending on both sides of the Referendum debate
Pro EU campaigners & the Government will be able to spend £17m as they try & persuade the country to remain within the EU. Campaigners who want to leave the EU will only be able to spend £11m.
It is only fair that both sides spend the same amount.
More details
As the EU Referendum draws nearer, there will be arguments put forward on both sides.
The Remain campaign will be able to spend considerably more than the Leave campaign.
We believe this is unfair and that both sides of the campaign should spend the same amount.
The inbuilt advantage to the Remain campaign by being allowed to spend more on campaigning should be suspended.
There should be a level playing field when it comes to spending on campaigning in the EU Referendum.
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s not clear what the petition is asking the UK Government or Parliament to do.
It is not clear to us what action you would like the Government or Parliament to take on campaign spending.
There is legislation already in place (the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act) which sets the limits of spending in referendum campaigns. The cap on spending is the same for both sides of any campaign. This cap applies during the official referendum campaign.
It has been reported in the press that one side of the campaign will be able to spend more than the other. This does not relate to the limits set down by law, which apply equally to both sides. It seems to relate to the fact that it is possible under the law for one side to have a “lead campaigner”, with additional permitted spending, even if the other side does not agree a lead campaigner.
If that is what you are concerned about, you could call on Parliament to change the law. You could either ask for the provision for a “lead campaigner” to be removed altogether, so that neither side can benefit from this status, or you could ask for the additional spending limit to apply only if both sides have a “lead campaigner”.
If you would like a different change to the law, you could start a new petition asking for that.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.