New evidence which confirms that the Liberal Democrats sold voter data to the Remain campaign in 2016 for almost £100,000 is being withheld from public scrutiny by the UK's information watchdog, openDemocracy has learned.
A report in 2018 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it had obtained evidence that the Liberal Democrats sold the personal data of its party members to the Britain Stronger In Europe (BSiE) campaign ahead of the Brexit referendum. The party insisted it only shared publicly available electoral register data that had been “enhanced”, but not private membership information.
openDemocracy has seen the evidence held by the ICO for over a year. In official Liberal Democrat documents that have been examined and validated by the data watchdog, the 2016 income of the party specifically identifies both “data services sale” and “data services fees” worth almost £100,000 which occurred during the lengthy EU referendum campaign.
