A shadowy global operation involving big data, billionaire friends of Trump and the disparate forces of the Leave campaign influenced the result of the EU referendum. As Britain heads to the polls again, is our electoral process still fit for purpose?

New details are emerging about how the shadowy data firm Cambridge Analytica worked to manipulate voters across the globe, from the 2016 election in the United States to the Brexit campaign in Britain and elections in over 60 other countries, including Malaysia, Kenya and Brazil.

The investigation found that the firm violated both the federal Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the provincial Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA).

The official Vote Leave campaign spent more than £2.7m on targeting ads at specific groups of people on Facebook - helping it to win the 2016 EU referendum.

Shahmir Sanni co-founded BeLeave, an offshoot of the Vote Leave campaign, during the EU Referendum. He turned whistleblower last year when he exposed its law-breaking. Here he reveals how two of the contenders to replace Theresa May cannot absolve themselves of responsibility.

The UK’s Electoral Commission has published the results of a near nine-month-long investigation into Brexit referendum spending and has found that the official Vote Leave campaign broke the law by breaching election campaign spending limits.

In 2018, Shahmir Sanni alleged to the Observer that Vote Leave had broken electoral law by purporting to donate £625,000 to a youth group, BeLeave, but instead funnelled it directly to its data and ad-targeting firm AggregateIQ.

Michael Gove and Boris Johnson also among key figures facing growing calls to account for campaign’s illegal behaviour.

The Electoral Commission, charged by parliament with ensuring the 2016 EU referendum was fair, unlawfully tilted the playing field in favour of leave. That’s the striking consequence of a high court decision from this morning.

The EU referendum was won based on a corrupt campaign, but the courts can't void the result because the referendum only advisory, according to the barrister who took the government to court.

Eighth Report of Session 2017–19

Report warns ‘democracy is at risk’ and turns fire on the prime minister for failure to probe effect on referendum result.

Illegal fund activity linked to Brexit being ignored in belief ‘the people have spoken’.

We now know – beyond a reasonable doubt – the EU Referendum was rife with illegal activity and cheating. We cannot stand idly by while our democracy is being attacked. If you rob a bank and get caught, they don't let you keep the money.

The whistleblower at the heart of the scandal surrounding the main Brexit campaign has called for a police investigation into allegations that the group breached electoral spending rules.

Sanni claims that a donation of £625,000 was made by Vote Leave to an independent referendum campaign organisation called BeLeave.

A Brexit campaigner has told Channel 4 News that Vote Leave cheated in the 2016 referendum by over-spending.