The regulator ruled that the party – led by Nigel Farage at the time – did not take donations from the wrong sources in the run-up to the general and European elections.
“Did anyone see that on the news?” Farage responded. “That, after two years of agony, I came out with a clean bill of health? You will not see that anywhere!”
Farage on his LBC radio show Tuesday night, noted that the big news was being more or less ignored in the mainstream media and suggested that the Electoral Commission was biased, adding that he does not “think much” of the institution.
The Commission was investigating if UKIP took “impermissible donations” from the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe (ADDE), an MEP grouping, and the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe (IDDE).
The European Parliament has alleged the ADDE and IDDE misused more than €500,000 of EU funding, to benefit UKIP ahead of the 2015 general election and EU referendum.
The Commission said: “While the ADDE and IDDE polling paid for by EPB (European Parliament Bureau) grant money was on topics relevant to UKIP, we did not conclude that it was done to help UKIP, or that UKIP received any of the outputs from the work.
“Therefore, the polling work was not a donation to UKIP under UK political finance rules.” It added: “We saw that the polling work paid for by EPB grant funding was relevant to Ukip’s political position in 2015/16.”
The Director of Political Finance and Regulation & Legal Counsel at the Electoral Commission, said they had concucted a “thorough investigation that involved analysing a significant volume of evidence, as well as conducting interviews with a number of individuals”.
A legal attempt to restore EU funds to IDDE that had its funding suspended over fraud allegations, has faile meanwhile. The accusations have added huge financial pressure on Eurosceptic parties.
The European court of justice rejected an appeal by the Institute for Direct Democracy in Europe for the release of €670,655 in EU funds, which the organisation had been denied, pending an investigation by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud office.
The IDDE was the Eurosceptic foundation affiliated to the Alliance for Direct Democracy in Europe, a pan-European political party dominated by UKIP as well as members from Germany’s AfD. IDDE and ADDE effectively became defunct because of the investigation, two sources told the Guardian in February this year.
The European parliament froze payments to the IDDE in December 2016, pending an investigation into “presumed irregularities”, according to official documents.
The IDDE tried to take the European parliament to court for suspending its 2017 grant, but lost. The court also ordered IDDE to pay the parliament’s legal costs.