Investigation: Brexit

This is an article about Brexit.

It is incomplete (as is tradition, maybe one day I will complete an article) and the last update was on December 24, 2019.

Let’s begin:

In February 2005, Arron Banks co-founded the insurance company Brightside.

On July 20, 2005, SCL Group Limited was incorporated by John Bottomley (Company Secretary), Alexander Oakes (Director), Nigel Oakes and Alexander Nix (Director).

On December 20, 2007, Julian Wheatland was hired at SCL Group Limited as Chief Executive Officer.

On February 17, 2008, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Shopping with the oligarchs” in The Guardian, which detailed her attendance of Moscow’s Millionaire Fair.

In 2009, Jim Messina met David Cameron as part of President Obama’s entourage during a trip to London.

On October 25, 2011, Members of Parliament voted in relation to a referendum on the European Union. People who voted for a referendum included:

• Steven Baker
• William Cash
• Jeremy Corbyn
• David Davis
• Kate Hoey
• Andrea Leadsom
• Caroline Lucas
• Priti Patel
• Jacob Rees-Mogg
• John Whittingdale

“Still, until he became Labour leader, Corbyn was an implacable critic of the E.U. Although withdrawal has long been an obsession of the Conservative Party’s right wing, there has always been a minority on the Labour left that sees the bloc as a free-market, vaguely militaristic project designed to serve the interest of large corporations ahead of citizens. Forty years ago, as a Labour councillor, Corbyn voted against Britain’s membership in the European Economic Community, and as an M.P. he has opposed two further E.U. treaties, lamenting the bloc’s lack of democratic accountability. In 1993, Corbyn described the E.U. as part of ‘what I believe is an extremely unjust world economic order’.” — The New Yorker

In 2012, Matthew Elliott founded the organisation Business For Britain.

Also in 2012, Douglas Carswell, Daniel Hannan and Mark Reckless started to meet at a café at the Tate Britain, where they discussed how to bring about a referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union.

In the summer of 2012, Farage met with Steve Bannon for the first time, where Bannon invited Farage to speak in New York and Washington.

On October 17, 2012, SCL Elections Limited was incorporated by Alexander Nix.

On December 7, 2012, Alexander Nix left his position at SCL Group Limited.

In 2013, both SCL Elections Limited and AggregateIQ were retained by government ministers in Trinidad and Tobago, a project which involved Aleksandr Kogan, Chris Wylie, Mark Gettleson and Thomas Borwick.

In January 2013, Prime Minister Cameron committed to a referendum over the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union.

The same month, an intern, Sophie Schmidt, at SCL Elections suggested to Nix that the organisation should consider entering the data market using Palantir, which belonged to somebody she knew through her father, Eric Schmidt.

“On that day in June 2013, Sophie met up with SCL’s chief executive, Alexander Nix, and gave him the germ of an idea. ‘She said, ‘You really need to get into data.’ She really drummed it home to Alexander. And she suggested he meet this firm that belonged to someone she knew about through her father.’
Who’s her father?
‘Eric Schmidt.’
Eric Schmidt — the chairman of Google?
‘Yes. And she suggested Alexander should meet this company called Palantir.’” — The Guardian, prior to alteration

After January 2013, Cambridge Analytica and Palantir entered discussions for a potential working relationship, when Alfredas Chmieliauskas started to communicate via Gmail to Wylie and a colleague at a time where they worked at SCL Group.

In June 2013, two SCL employees e-mailed each other about Sophie Schmidt’s connections with Palantir.

“Ever come across Palantir? Amusingly Eric Schmidt’s daughter was an intern with us and is trying to push us towards them?” — SCL Employee

In the autumn of 2013, Christopher Wylie first met Steve Bannon.

At some stage, Wylie and Nix travelled to New York and met with Rebekah and Robert Mercer at Rebekah’s apartment, as the Mercers had been introduced to SCL Group by Bannon.

On August 11, 2013, Wylie sent an e-mail to Jeff Silvester about SCL, although Silvester later declined being involved directly.

After August 11, 2013, AggregateIQ was founded by Zack Massingham, which was apparently also worked on by Christopher Wylie, who reached out to Jeff Silvester who declined to assist.

“Without a doubt, the Vote Leave campaign owes a great deal of its success to the work of AggregateIQ. We couldn’t have done it without them.” — Dominic Cummings

“AIQ wouldn’t exist without me. When I became a research director for SCL, we needed to rapidly expand our technical capacity and I reached out to a lot of people I had worked with in the past.” — Christopher Wylie

By 2014, Arron Banks was worth $100 million due to his ownership of five diamond mines.

The same year, Christopher Wylie was employed at Cambridge Analytica, where he reported to Steve Bannon, although he would leave the organisation before the end of the year. Before he left the organisation, Wylie persuaded Mark Gettleson to be hired at Cambridge Analytica.

In early 2014, Nix and Chmieliauskas pushed to revive a potential partnership between SCL Group and Palantir, but Palantir declined.

By the spring of 2014, Palantir were interested in Facebook data and psychographics and discussed this with SCL Group.

On March 31, 2014, John Bottomley resigned from SCL Group Limited, as he was replaced with Alexander Oakes.

In May 2014, during a business dinner, a Member of Parliament spoke with Lord Ashcroft and Oakeshott and made mention of David Cameron’s actions with a dead pig during a Piers Gaveston Society initiation ceremony event.

The same month, Chmieliauskas and Wylie’s team were also in communication as Cambridge Analytica were in negotiations with Michal Kosinski, which ultimately failed.

“I had left field idea. What about replicating the work of the cambridge prof as a mobile app that connects to facebook? Reproducing the app could be a valuable leverage negotiating with the guy.” — The New York Times

On June 4, 2014, SCL entered a commercial arrangement with the company Global Science Research, owned by Aleksandr Kogan.

In the summer of 2014, Cambridge Analytica received assistance from Alfredas Chmieliauskas at Palantir, who advised Wylie on Facebook data.

On July 17, 2014, Nix sent an e-mail to Wylie about potentially writing a memo to Lukoil.

On August 28, 2014, Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservative Party to the United Kingdom Independence Party in an attempt to undermine Farage’s leadership.

On September 27, 2014, Mark Reckless defected from the Conservative Party to the United Kingdom Independence Party.

By October 2014, Banks was in charge of his own insurance company Go Skippy.

On October 1, 2014, Banks announced that he was leaving the Conservative Party for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) with a £100,000.00 donation. A few hours later, Banks increased the donation to £1,000,000.00 due to William Hague’s snubbing of him.

“I understand Mr. Hague called me a… nobody, so in light of that and in view of the fact that I’m a strong advocate of leaving the European Union, I’ve decided today to donate £1 million to the party and not the £100,000 we originally agreed.” — Arron Banks

In late 2014, Gettleson left Cambridge Analytica, which led to Wylie offering him to work on a new business venture.

In 2015, Facebook discovered that Aleksandr Kogan had passed data collected through the app “this is your digital life” to Cambridge Analytica and Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.

“Protecting people’s information is at the heart of everything we do, and we require the same from people who operate apps on Facebook. In 2015, we learned that a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge named Dr. Aleksandr Kogan lied to us and violated our Platform Policies by passing data from an app that was using Facebook Login to SCL/Cambridge Analytica, a firm that does political, government and military work around the globe. He also passed that data to Christopher Wylie of Eunoia Technologies, Inc.” — Facebook

By January 2015, Banks had founded the insurance group Southern Rock.

On January 6, 2015, Cambridge Analytica(UK) Limited was incorporated by Alexander Nix.

On January 23, 2015, Jim Pickard and Kiran Stacey published the article “Tycoon Arron Banks unrepentant for backing Ukip” in The Financial Times. At this time, Banks was open to returning to the Conservative Party if the leader was against the European Union, open to David Davis as Prime Minister.

On April 2, 2015, Shaun Walker published the article “The Russian troll factory at the heart of the meddling allegations” in The Guardian.

On April 13, 2015, Lord Ashcroft published the article “Lord Ashcroft: Presenting my unauthorised biography of Cameron — ‘Call Me Dave’” in ConservativeHome.

“I have made it clear that my book, a collaboration with former Sunday Times Political Editor Isabel Oakeshott, will be objective. Nonetheless Cameron is suspicious. It is no secret that he dislikes the prospect of what he dismissively labels ‘the Ashcroft book’. We have tried, and failed, to persuade him to talk. While Seldon has had full co-operation from Number 10 (I am told ‘everybody’ — from Ed Llewellyn, Cameron’s chief of staff, down — has been encourated to make time for the historian) the Prime Minister has shut the doors to us. Letters to relatives requesting interviews have gone unanswered, and senior aides know he does not want them to help. Some individuals who were willing to talk to us in principle but wanted Downing Street’s blessing were repeatedly stonewalled. Cameron’s strategy appears to be: put up the shutters, then rubbish the book on the basis that we have had no access.” — ConservativeHome

The same day, in response, Steerpike published the article “Exclusive: David Cameron’s official biographer responds to Lord Ashcroft” in The Spectator.

On May 8, 2015, Prime Minister David Cameron won the general election with a majority for the Conservative Party.

On May 14, 2015, Raheem Kassam and Matthew Richardson announced that they would be stepping down from their positions in the United Kingdom Independence Party — Kassam as his contract was ending, and Richardson due to an actual resignation.

On May 15, 2015, Isabel Oakeshott tweeted: “Final meetings at the Duma with Lord Ashcroft”, which also featured a photograph of the pair outside of the building. The visit was a part of Oakeshott and Lord Ashcroft’s research into Prime Minister David Cameron for their biography on him, “Call Me Dave”.

On May 18, 2015, Steerpike published the article “Lord Ashcroft travels to Russia to research his David Cameron biography” in The Spectator.

On May 28, 2015, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond introduced the European Union Referendum Act of 2015 bill to the House of Commons.

In the summer of 2015, Boris Johnson met with Dominic Cummings to discuss the concept of two referendums in relation to the European Union.

On June 2, 2015, BBC Newsbeat published the article “Why ‘chat show Charlie’ mattered to politics”, which featured a few words from Darren Grimes, a Liberal Democrat supporter.

“He was always pushing for the party to be an internationalist voice. He believed that in an increasingly globalised world, having Britain in Europe was the only way forward. And I think that’s the message the party needs pushing. And he was one of the first people to get out there and voice that.” — Darren Grimes

Before July 2015, Banks and Farage were introduced to each other by James Mellon.

In July 2015, Banks, Wigmore and Farage travelled to San Pedro, Belize, alongside Michael Ashcroft, which led to preparations for their referendum campaign and the creation of Leave.EU.

On July 7, 2015, Darren Grimes published the article “Opinion: Britain’s Liberal Youth Can Flourish In a Lamb-Led Liberal Democrats” in Liberal Democrat Voice. At the time, Grimes worked on Norman Lamb’s leadership campaign for the Liberal Democrats alongside Mark Gettleson.

After July 2015, Banks enlisted the organisation Goddard Gunster and Cambridge Analytica to advise Leave.EU. Banks and Wigmore also met with members of Trump’s presidential campaign team.

“The Brexit win thrilled Donald J. Trump, who saw in that blow to elite complacency and hierarchy a model for his presidential campaign. And it was Mr. Banks who exchanged ideas on tactics with Mr. Trump’s team throughout their campaign, making visits with Mr. Farage to Trump rallies.” — The New York Times

In the autumn of 2015, Boris abandoned his idea of two referendums and instead pushed for the sovereignty of British parliament.

Also in the autumn of 2015, Prime Minister Cameron contacted President Obama via telephone and requested for his assistance to campaign for Remain.

Also in the same season, the Integrity Initiative was started and funded by the British Government to combat Russian disinformation and propaganda, in conjunction with British military intelligence (the Institute For Statecraft, founded in 2015, funded the operation with £296,500.00 in 2016 / 2017).

On August 13, 2015, Tony Blair published the article “Tony Blair: Even if you hate me, please don’t take Labour over the cliff edge” in The Guardian.

“With Corbyn as leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation.” — Tony Blair

Before September 2015, Banks enlisted Jim Mellon to work on a campaign to leave the European Union, which led to Mellon recruiting social media people from San Francisco. The operation also included the creation of a call center in Bristol. Leave.EU also received the support of the Bow Group. Leave.EU also wrote to Vote Leave to work together and merge, and the two organisations met a few times, although the conversations did not align.

In September 2015, Banks and Wigmore attended a conference for the United Kingdom Independence Party, where Wigmore met with Alexander Udod and pushed to meet Ambassador Yakovenko.

In the same month, Leave.EU hired Gerry Gunster as a campaign planner.

On September 4, 2015, Leave.EU Group Limited was founded as TheKnow.EU by Banks, Elizabeth Bilney and Alison Marshall.

On September 7, 2015, the European Union Referendum Act 2015 was passed in the House of Commons after its third reading.

On September 12, 2015, Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership contest to become the Leader of the Labour Party.

“Corbyn learned of his victory just before noon on Saturday, September 12, 2015, in a small conference room overlooking Parliament Square. Among Labour members around the country, he won 59.5 per cent of the vote, a larger mandate than any recent leader, including Blair. But of two hundred and thirty Labour M.P.s who sit in the House of Commons, only twenty had voted for the new leader.” — The New Yorker

On September 20, 2015, Lord Ashcroft and Oakeshott published the article “Drugs, debauchery and the making of an extraordinary Prime Minister: For years rumours have dogged him. Now, the truth about the shockingly decadent Oxford days of the gifted Bullingdon boy” in The Daily Mail.

The same day, Lord Ashcroft published the article “A broken promise and why I wrote the book: LORD ASHCROFT reveals how he went from supporter to critic of Cameron” in The Daily Mail.

On September 21, 2015, Robert Colvile published the article “Who on earth is Lord Ashcroft?” in Politico.

On October 5, 2015, Lord Ashcroft and Oakeshott released the book “Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron”.

On October 7, 2015, Gunster posed for a photograph to send to Reuters from his office.

On October 8, 2015, Vote Leave was founded, having been formed from Matthew Elliott’s organisation Business For Britain.

On October 9, 2015, Kylie MacLellan published the article “An American hired gun aims to persuade Britons to leave EU” in Reuters, which was about Gerry Gunster and included an interview with him via telephone.

On October 24, 2015, Banks wrote an e-mail, with Bannon copied into it, where he said that Leave.EU wanted Cambridge Analytica to devise a strategy to raise funds in the United States and build relationships with companies affected by the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, although the effort was ultimately not pursued.

On November 6, 2015, Banks and Wigmore met with Ambassador Yakovenko at his residence in Kensington Palace Gardens for a six hour lunch, where Banks mentioned his diamond mines, and Wigmore discussed a need for a buyer for a Belizean banana plantation.

On November 7, 2015, Banks and Ambassador Yakovenko shared text messages to arrange a meeting for November 16, 2015.

Before November 9, 2015, Vote Leave created the fake organisation Lyon Shepphard Web Solutions.

At some stage, AggregateIQ contacted Veterans For Britain to offer their assistance in the Leave campaign.

On November 9, 2015, Peter Lyon and Phil Sheppard, members of Students For Britain, interrupted Prime Minister Cameron’s speech to the pro-Confederation of British Industry where they held banners and chanted “CBI: Voice of Britain”, which was orchestrated by Vote Leave through the Lyon Shepphard Web Solutions organisation.

On November 16, 2015, Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko invited Banks and Wigmore to a meeting at the Russian Embassy during the evening.

On November 17, 2015, Banks met with Ambassador Yakovenko, who introduced him to a Russian businessman, Siman Povarenkin, with interests in Russian goldmines, which later led to a business offer to purchase six Russian gold firms to merge into a single entity. Banks reached out to Povarenkin via text.

“I’ve chatted to Jim Mellon who is my partner in the bank and we are both interested in looking at how we could help. Jim has extensive interests in commodities.” — Arron Banks to Siman Povarenkin

On November 18, 2015, Leave.EU hosted a press conference, which was attended by Gerry Gunster, Ian Warren, Richard Tice, Liz Bilney and Cambridge Analytica’s Brittany Kaiser.

“They hadn’t ‘employed’ Cambridge Analytica, [Wigmore] said. No money changed hands. ‘They were happy to help.’
Why?
‘Because Nigel is a good friend of the Mercers. And Robert Mercer introduced them to us. He said, ‘Here’s this company we think may be useful to you.’ What they were trying to do in the US and what we were trying to do had massive parallels. We shared a lot of information. Why wouldn’t you?’ Behind Trump’s campaign and Cambridge Analytica, he said, were ‘the same people. It’s the same family.’” — The Guardian

“Wigmore told the Guardian: ‘We never employed CA and they never gave us anything in kind. We met them way before the referendum even started a year before 23 June. We kept in touch that’s all and it’s true that one of their directors participated in our initial press conference to launch Leave.EU in October 2015. Our AI metrics were unique because of the peculiarity of Brexit. CA used the same techniques as we did and vice versa.’” — The Guardian

On November 20, 2015, Isabel Oakeshott published the article “Isabel Oakeshott: Brexit campaigners don’t know friend from enemy” in ConservativeHome, which was a discussion about Banks, Farage and Matthew Elliott of Vote Leave.

“He claims to have more than a quarter of a million supporters, including some 3000 small and medium sized businesses. He has drafted in American campaigners Goddard Gunster (who boast of a 90 per cent success rate in referendum campaigns around the world) and Cambridge Analytica, which specialises in targeted voter messaging (and makes similarly impressive sounding claims about hit rates.) He has even hired the services of a professional cartoonist.” — Isabel Oakeshott about Arron Banks

On December 11, 2015, Harry Davies published the article “Ted Cruz using firm that harvested data on millions of unwitting Facebook users” in The Guardian, which was about Cambridge Analytica based upon leaked documents seen by The Guardian.

On December 14, 2015, the European Union Referendum Act 2015 was approved by the House of Lords.

On December 17, 2015, the European Union Referendum Act 2015 was given Royal Assent.

On December 23, 2015, Robert Colvile published the article “Leave.EU: the anti-political campaign” in Politico.

In 2016, the organisation Another Europe Is Possible contacted Jeremy Corbyn and requested for him join a pro-EU platform alongside Caroline Lucas and others, but he refused.

In early 2016, a number of Eurosceptic MPs attempted to remove Dominic Cummings from Vote Leave, which led to Banks offering Cummings £200,000.00 to join Leave.EU.

Also in early 2016, Home Secretary Theresa May declined requests from British intelligence to investigate Arron Banks.

In January 2016, Director James Clapper started to review Russia’s funding of European parties.

The same month, Banks sent an e-mail to Nick van den Brul about the gold investment potential deal, and mentioned that he intended to meet with Ambassador Yakovenko, with the e-mail then copied to Udod.

The same month, Wigmore discussed with Povarenkin two gold deals and the Alrosa deal.

The same month, Stephen Parkinson (a friend of Gettleson and Wylie) suggested to Mark Gettleson to join the Vote Leave team.

On January 5, 2016, Guy Verhofstadt published the article “Putin will be rubbing his hands at the prospect of Brexit” in The Guardian.

On January 16, 2016, an investment adviser sent an e-mail to Povarenkin that Banks was still considering an offer in relation to the diamond company Alrosa.

A few days after January 16, 2016, van den Brul sent an e-mail to Banks about the Alrosa diamond opportunity.

Between January 25–31, 2016, President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested that the United Kingdom could stop Brexit should people vote for it, but it would need to be approved by the European council.

On January 28, 2016, Alexander Oakes left his position at SCL Group Limited, as Alexander Nix was rehired as a director.

Before February 2016, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan donated £500,000.00 each to Britain Stronger In Europe.

In February 2016, Steve Baker MP sent an e-mail to multiple people and pushed for Vote Leave to be the official Leave campaign.

“It is open to the Vote Leave family to create separate legal entities each of which could spend £700k: Vote Leave will be able to spend as much money as is necessary to win the referendum.” — Steve Baker MP

The same month, Banks and Wigmore travelled to Moscow, Russia to meet investors in the gold project.

“But he said he was persuaded it was too risky to invest, insisting: ‘I have got no business interests in Russia and I have no business deals in Russia.’” — The Independent

On February 2, 2016, Home Secretary Theresa May suggested she would assist Prime Minister Cameron in campaigning to remain for the United Kingdom to remain in the European Union.

“The president reaffirmed continued US support for a strong United Kingdom in a strong European Union.” — The White House

On February 12, 2016, Ben Nimmo published the article “Putin’s Media Are Pushing Britain For The Brexit” in The Interpreter.

On February 16, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron had a telephone call with Boris Johnson.

On February 17, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron met with Boris Johnson, who said he did not support remaining in the European Union at that time.

Between February 18–19, 2016, a summit between European Union leaders was held. During this summit, Prime Minister Cameron secured a new deal with the European Union for special terms.

Before February 20, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron had his cabinet seemingly agree to campaign to remain within the European Union, despite ministers supporting Brexit.

On February 19, 2016, Michael Gove began to support leaving the European Union.

On February 20, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron announced a referendum on the United Kingdom’s membership within the European Union, set to happen on June 23, 2016.

The same day, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Theresa Villiers, John Whittingdale and Priti Patel were photographed outside of the headquarters of Vote Leave.

“We will be campaigning to keep Britain in Europe in the coming referendum, regardless of David Cameron’s tinkering, because it brings investments, jobs and protection for British workers and consumers.” — Jeremy Corbyn

On February 21, 2016, Boris Johnson announced his support for the Leave campaign.

On February 23, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron addressed the House of Commons and informed them that there would be no second referendum on European Union membership.

“I have known a number of couples who have begun divorce proceedings. But I do not know any who have begun divorce proceedings in order to renew their marriage vows.” — Prime Minister David Cameron

On February 26, 2016, Christopher Miller published the article “How disunity and instability in Europe benefits Vladimir Putin” in Mashable, which featured a quote from Anders Aslund.

On February 27, 2016, Chancellor George Osborne spoke at a G20 conference in Shanghai, where he said that Brexit would damage the international economy.

“Here at the G20, finance leaders and central bank governors of the world’s biggest economies have raised serious concerns about the risks posed by a UK exit from the EU. They have concluded unanimously today that what they call the shock of a potential UK vote to leave is among the biggest economic dangers this year. If that’s their assessment of the impact on the world economy, imagine what it would do to the UK. This isn’t some amusing adventure into the unknown. A British exit would hurt peoples’ jobs, livelihoods and living standards — it’s deadly serious. It’s my responsibility as Chancellor to make it clear to people what the economic risks are — and that we are stronger, safer and better off remaining in a reformed E.U.” — Chancellor George Osborne

On February 28, 2016, Mayor Boris Johnson published the article “Don’t be taken in by Project Fear — staying in the EU is the risky choice” in The Telegraph.

The same day, Alistair Darling published the article “There’s a reason why it’s called Project Fear: From the ex-Chancellor who battled maelstrom of the 2008 crash, a dire warning against voting ‘Out’” in The Daily Mail.

In March 2016, Leave.EU created a petition titled “Back Off, Barack!” to keep President Obama out of the Brexit debate.

On March 2, 2016, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond delivered a speech at Chatham House, chaired by Dr. Robin Niblett, where he said that only Russia would benefit from Brexit.

“Some have said we should focus our attention on the Anglosphere and the Commonwealth. But the EU already has or is negotiating trade deals with all the biggest Commonwealth countries. None of our allies wants us to leave the EU — not Australia, not New Zealand, not Canada, not the US. In fact, the only country, if the truth is told, that would like us to leave the EU is Russia. That should probably tell us all we need to know.” — Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond

On March 8, 2016, the European Union Select Committee met with Derrick Wyatt and Sir David Edward to discuss potential withdrawal from the European Union.

The same day, Tom Newton Dunn published the article “Revealed: Queen backs Brexit as alleged EU bust-up with ex-Deputy PM emerges” in The Sun.

On March 9, 2016, Charles Crawford published the article “Vladimir Putin wants Britain to vote for Brexit, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t” in The Telegraph.

The same day, Steerpike published the article “Was Michael Gove present at the Queen’s ‘Brexit’ lunch?” in The Spectator, while Nick Clegg denied that his conversation with Queen Elizabeth II ever happened.

On March 11, 2016, the Russian Embassy In London released a statement and pushed back on Foreign Secretary Hammond’s comments on March 2 about Russia wanting the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

“Russia is being dragged into the domestic debate on Brexit. Why is the wicked Russia thesis used to explain a government policy? We’d like the British people to know that those pronouncements have nothing to do with Russia’s policy. As a matter of fact, our government doesn’t have an opinion on Britain’s place in the EU.” — Russian Embassy In London

The same day, a Leave.EU employee sent an e-mail to Banks and Wigmore about the Russian Embassy’s press release about Hammond’s comments, to which Banks and Wigmore responded that they should support Ambassador Yakovenko and draft a press release.

On March 23, 2016, a list leaked out by The Times showed which Members of Parliament were listed as hostile to Jeremby Corbyn by loyalty rank.

• Core Group: Diane Abbott, Imran Hussain, Ian Lavery, Clive Lewis, Andy McDonald, John McDonnell, Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris, Dennis Skinner, Catherine Smith, John Trickett
• Core Group Plus: Vernon Coaker, Lisa Nandy, Owen Smith, Tom Watson, David Winnick
• Neutral But Not Hostile: Chris Bryant, Andy Burnham, Ann Clwyd, Angela Eagle, Kate Hoey
• Core Group Negative: Margaret Beckett, Jo Cox, Gloria de Piero, Frank Field, Dan Jarvis, Ed Miliband, Jess Phillips, Lucy Powell, Keith Vaz
• Hostile: Luciana Berger, Mary Creagh, Caroline Flint, Margaret Hodge, Sadiq Khan, Chris Leslie, Pat McFadden, Alison McGovern, Rachel Reeves, Chuka Umunna, Rosie Winterton, John Woodcock

“Labour insiders believe the list emerged from a team of MPs loyal to Corbyn who call themselves the ‘core group’, and meet regularly — separately from the shadow cabinet — to discuss policy issues, and strategies for dealing with the divided state of the parliamentary party and shoring up the leader.” — The Guardian

In April 2016, Banks was reached out to about a potential gold mine sale in Conakry, Guinea by an investment banker.

The same month, Christopher Steele completed an assignment on behalf of a private client titled “Project Charlemagne”, in which he looked at Russian interference in France, Italy, Germany, Turkey and the United Kingdom through social media and subtle financial support.

“It also suggests that Russian aid was likely given to lesser-known right-wing nationalists in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.” — The New Yorker

On April 6, 2016, the British Government published the report “Why the Government believes that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK.”

On April 11, 2016, David Miliband published the article “Why Brexit would be nothing less than an act of political arson” in The Guardian.

“The challenge is about security. Jihadism is a threat to life and limb from Belgium to Nigeria to the Middle East and South Asia. But there is a wider assault on the democratic norms of the post cold-war settlement. International humanitarian law is being flouted; global economic institutions are being tested to the limit; Russia has set itself up as a pole of attraction for all those frustrated by the missteps of the west; Donald Trump is arguing that Nato is obsolete.”
[…]
“Don’t just take my word for it, or even the words of our allies in Europe. Across the Atlantic, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are all agreed that the special relationship is enhanced by a strong UK in a strong EU. Leaving would weaken both. In the big emerging economics, President Xi Jinping of China and Prime Minister Narendri Modi of India see Britain’s membership of the EU as pivotal to the deepening of our relationship with their respective nations.”
[…]
“Ask who will be celebrating the morning after a British vote to leave? Not the leaders of America; Germany; France; the rest of the EU; China; India; Australia; Canada. No, alongside Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, it will be Marine Le Pen, Vladimir Putin and perhaps Donald Trump.” — David Miliband

On April 13, 2016, the Electoral Commission officially named Vote Leave as the Brexit campaign for the European Union referendum.

On or after April 13, 2016, Banks considered legal action against the Electoral Commission for selecting Vote Leave, but chose against it due to concerns of delaying the referendum vote.

On April 14, 2016, the Treasury Committee announced its intention to hear from Vote Leave and Leave.EU in a hearing.

The same day, Corbyn attended a pro-European Union campaign hosted by the Labour Party, where he delivered a speech in support of remaining in the European Union.

“Jeremy is completely opposed to the E.U.” — Tariq Ali

Between April 15 — June 23, 2016, only three adverts created through the Internet Research Agency for Facebook were seen for a total of 200 times across four days in May 2016.

On April 19, 2016, Georgi Gotev published the article “Will Brexit make the EU more pro-Russian?” in EURACTIV.

The same day, Arne Delfs and Henry Meyer published the article “Putin’s Propaganda Machine Is Meddling With European Elections” in Bloomberg, although the URL for the article reads “From Rape Claim to Brexit, Putin Machine Tears At Europe’s Seams”.

On April 20, 2016, the Treasury Committee held a hearing at Portcullis House to hear from Matthew Elliott and Dominic Cummings, followed afterwards with a hearing from Arron Banks and Richard Tice.

On April 21, 2016, President Barack Obama arrived in London as part of an arrangement with the Remain campaign in an attempt to dissuade the British people from voting to leave the European Union.

“We had come here to try to help the Remain campaign and we had a meeting with David Cameron and his team. We were all in violent agreement about the negative consequences of Brexit. In talking about the press conference they were going to hold together, Cameron and Obama, we were discussing the arguments for the Brexit campaign.
Some of the arguments were based on the notion the US could just negotiate its own free trade agreement with the UK quickly. We all were agreeing that was unlikely to happen. As Obama was saying that, somebody on the British side said, ‘yes, we’d end up being back of the queue’ and everyone laughed and Obama said ‘that’s exactly right’. Then he was asked ‘well, it would be good if you could repeat that point in the press conference’ and, of course, he did.
And, to be fair to Cameron, I don’t know that Cameron was suggesting the exact phrase that had been used on his side. But that’s what had been put forward and Obama said ‘of course, I’m here to be helpful’.” — Ben Rhodes

“‘I don’t think we ever thought this was going to be the golden chalice,’ said one of the people involved in planning Obama’s trip, but ‘we were anticipating it would help highlight how important the stakes were.’” — Politico

“For the referendum election, The Messina Group wasn’t running the polling. They outsourced it to a company run by a former Cameron aide. But they were keeping close track of the numbers, and Messina’s connections to both leaders helped craft the argument Obama made, both in an op-ed and then at a press conference at 10 Downing Street: advice from a friend that leaving would be a really, really bad idea, with some real talk about the consequences for trade and the economy.” — Politico

On April 22, 2016, President Barack Obama penned an opinion piece about the European Union and the United Kingdom for The Telegraph.

The same day, Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama hosted a joint press conference outside 10 Downing Street, where President Obama said that the United Kingdom would be placed at the back of the queue for trade deals — “queue” being British instead of the usage of the word “line”.

“As I wrote in the op-ed here today, I don’t believe the EU moderates British influence in the world — it magnifies it. The EU has helped to spread British values and practices across the continent. The single market brings extraordinary economic benefits to the United Kingdom. And that ends up being good for America, because we’re more prosperous when one of our best friends and closest allies has a strong, stable, growing economy. Americans want Britain’s influence to grow, including within Europe.”
[…]
“And on that matter, for example, I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down the line, there might be a UK-U.S. trade agreement, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon, because our focus is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done, and the UK is going to be in the back of the queue — not because we don’t have a special relationship, but because, given the heavy lift on any trade agreement, us having access to a big market with a lot of countries — rather than trying to do piecemeal trade agreements is hugely inefficient.” — President Barack Obama

On April 23, 2016, President Barack Obama published the article “Barack Obama: As your friend, let me say that the EU makes Britain even greater” in The Telegraph.

The same day, President Obama met with Jeremy Corbyn for 90 minutes at the Royal Horticultural Halls, where they discussed the United Kingdom’s membership in the European Union, before attending golf with Prime Minister Cameron.

“Remain operatives milked that every way they could, adding a youth town hall to Obama’s schedule and a meeting with Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, who’d proven a consistent pain from the start.
‘What it did was say to young people who love him the most, ‘start to pay attention,’ the Remain operative said. ‘Cameron couldn’t speak to the young people, Corbyn wouldn’t — Obama could.’” — Politico

On April 25, 2016, Home Secretary Theresa May delivered a speech at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London about the United Kingdom and the European Union.

“I do not want to stand here and insult people’s intelligence by claiming that everything about the EU is perfect, that membership of the EU is wholly good, nor do I believe those that say the sky will fall in if we vote to leave. The reality is that there are costs and benefits to our membership and, looking to the years and decades ahead, there are risks and opportunities too. The issues the country has to weigh up before this referendum are complex. But on balance, and given the tests I set earlier in my speech, I believe the case to remain a member of the European Union is strong.” — Home Secretary Theresa May

The same day, Asa Bennett published the article “Theresa May wants you to stay in the EU. Has she blown her chances of ever being Tory leader?” in The Telegraph.

On April 27, 2016, the Treasury Select Committee hosted a hearing with Arron Banks and Richard Tice.

On April 28, 2018, the European Union Committee ordered to print the report “The process of withdrawing from the European Union”.

On April 29, 2016, Oakeshott met with Banks and Wigmore at Heathrow International Airport and flew to Washington, DC to attend the White House Correspondents Dinner, having received the invitation from Banks and Gunster. At the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, Oakeshott, Banks and Wigmore met with Katy Hoey. Oakeshott, Banks, Wigmore and Hoey MP then attended a reception at The Washington Post headquarters.

On April 30, 2016, Oakeshott, Wigmore, Banks and Hoey MP attended a pre-party at the Hilton hosted by Yahoo!, followed by the White House Correspondents Dinner, where they met with Steve Hilton, Rachel Whetstone and Governor Rick Scott. Banks introduced himself to Fox News correspondents while Wigmore secured selfie photographs with Whoopi Goldberg, Arianna Huffington and Michael Kelly.

In May 2016, five members of parliament, including Crispin Blunt and Mark Hendrick, traveled to Moscow, Russia and visited the Duma as part of the British Foreign Affairs Committee’s inquiry into the UK-Russia relationship. The members of parliament met with business leaders, Russian officials, academics, experts and Ambassador John F. Tefft.

“‘The regime and Putin in particular — whilst they’ve not put forward an official line, because obviously that might be counter-productive — would be very pleased if Britain exited the European Union,’ said Mark Hendrick, a Labour member of the parliamentary committee, who wants Britain to remain in the EU.”
[…]
“The ‘leave’ campaign has ridiculed suggestions that Putin is secretly helping them to win, and Crispin Blunt, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who is campaigning for Britain to quit, said the Russian officials had done nothing to endorse Brexit during their trip.” — The Daily Beast

The same month, the Labour Party refused to provide its voter registration lists with Stronger In.

Also the same month, William Healey of the English Democrats, a Leave campaigner, created a petition for a second referendum.

Also in the same month, Vote Leave helped Grimes register BeLeave as an organisation.

On May 1, 2016, Oakeshott, Wigmore, Banks, Gunster and Hoey MP visited the private home of Robert Allbritton, which was also attended by Reince Priebus, Alan Greenspan and Bob Woodward.

“So what did I learn? That the US political outlook is as difficult to predict as our own right now. There seems to be a broad consensus that Donald Trump will win the Republican nomination, but opinion is deeply divided over how much further he will go. Gunster reckons he will crash and burn, winning as few as five states. Others are adamant he will make the White House.
I also learned that American politicos are genuinely interested in the EU referendum — and almost none are as doomladen about what Brexit might mean for the so-called special relationship.” — Isabel Oakeshott

On May 3, 2016, Isabel Oakeshott published the article “Isabel Oakeshott: Barack, Banks and Brexit in DC — my diary of a 48-hour Washington whirl” in ConservativeHome.

On May 4, 2016, the European Union Committee published their report, “The process of withdrawing from the European Union”.

On May 9, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron delivered a speech in London, where he argued to remain in the European Union.

“Should we continue to forge our future as a proud, independent nation while remaining a member of the European Union, as we have been for the last 43 years? Or should we abandon it?
Let me say at the outset that I understand why many people are wrestling with this decision, and why some people’s heads and hearts are torn.
And I understand and respect the views of those who think we should leave, even if I believe they are wrong and that leaving would inflict real damage on our country, its economy and its power in the world.” — Prime Minister David Cameron

On May 10, 2016, Banks attended a meeting in relation to a gold mine in Conakry, Guinea.

Before May 11, 2016, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley donated $250,000.00 each to Britain Stronger In Europe.

On May 11, 2016, the Electoral Commission published the donations for both Remain and Leave campaigns.

The same day, the Information Commissioner’s Office fined Better For the Country Ltd. £50,000.00 for acquiring a list of phone numbers from a third party without necessary consent.

On May 13, 2016, Garry Kasparov published the article “Why Brexit would be the perfect gift for Vladimir Putin” in The Guardian.

On May 17, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron stated at the World Economic Forum that President Vladimir Putin and the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, want the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.

“Who would be happy if we left? Putin might be happy. I suspect al-Baghdadi might be happy.” — Prime Minister David Cameron

During the same speech, Prime Minister Cameron stated that there would be no second referendum.

“I think when people start arguing for a second referendum before you’ve even had the first one, I think that clearly demonstrates that you are losing the argument. I am absolutely clear a referendum is a referendum, it’s a once in a generation, once in a lifetime opportunity and the result determines the outcome… you can’t have neverendums, you have referendums.” — Prime Minister David Cameron

On May 20, 2016, President Juncker was interviewed by Le Monde, where he stated that the United Kingdom would be treated as deserters should the country vote to leave the European Union.

“The ‘deserters’ will not be welcomed with open arms. If the British had to say no, which I do not hope, community life would not continue as before. The United Kingdom will have to accept being considered as a third state, which one will not cherish in the direction of the hair.” — President Jean-Claude Juncker

On May 23, 2016, the Treasury Department published their analysis of the immediate economic impact of leaving the European Union, which received a review from Professor Sir Charles Bean.

On May 23, 2016, Sam Knight published the article “Enter Left” in The New Yorker, which was a piece about Corbyn.

Between May 23–29, 2016, the Remain campaign worked in an attempt to convince Corbyn to participate in a rally with Prime Minister Cameron, although Corbyn refused due to Prime Minister Cameron himself. As part of the negotiations, Gordon Brown met with Corbyn in an attempt to convince him but failed, which angered Craig Oliver and Jim Messina, and a plan to have President Obama intervene was considered but rejected.

On May 24, 2016, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon appeared before the House of Commons Defence Committee, chaired by Julian Lewis, where he stated that Russia would appreciate the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

The same day, Wake Up and Vote registered as a permitted participant in the referendum campaign, which later received £100,000.00 in donations.

On May 24, 2016, having arrived in the United Kingdom the previous night, Tony Blair argued against leaving the European Union to Labour Party voters, and argued against the hard left policies of Jeremy Corbyn.

On May 25, 2016, DDB UK Ltd. registered as an independent campaign, and then received £191,000.00 in donations.

On May 26, 2016, Home Secretary Theresa May delivered remarks for one hour at Goldman Sachs, which were recorded, where she argued the economic benefits of remaining in the European Union.

“I think the economic arguments are clear. I think being part of a 500-million trading bloc is significant for us. I think, as I was saying to you a little earlier, that one of the issues is that a lot of people will invest here in the UK because it is the UK in Europe. If we were not in Europe, I think there would be firms and companies who would be looking to say, do they need to develop a mainland Europe presence rather than a UK presence? So I think there are definite benefits for us in economic terms.” — Home Secretary Theresa May

On May 27, 2016, Best For Our Future registered as a permitted participant in the referendum campaign, which later received a total of £424,000.00 in donations.

Before June 2016, Christopher Steele worked on an investigation codenamed “Project Charlemagne”, which investigated Russian intelligence activities in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany and Turkey, which apparently led to the discovery of a black budget dedicated to populist nationalist movements opposed to the European Union.

On June 3, 2016, Virgin Management Ltd. registered as a permitted participant in the referendum campaign, which

On June 7, 2016, the board members of Stronger In met and discussed the referendum campaign, which included Caroline Lucas, where they reviewed polling and focus group data. Lucas complained during the meeting about the overuse of Prime Minister Cameron for the Remain side.

The same day, Steven Rosenberg published the article “EU referendum: Would Brexit make Putin happy?” in BBC News.

“Russia is blamed for everything. Not only in the UK but all over the world. We’re watching, for example, the presidential campaign in the United States and we’re also mentioned there. So it’s not surprising for us. But Russia has nothing to do with Brexit at all. We’re not involved in this process. We have no interest in this field.” — Maria Zakharova

The same day, the Register to Vote website crashed due to a surge in demand.

On June 8, 2016, Nico Hines and Pierre Vaux published the article “Why Putin Is Meddling in Britain’s Brexit Vote” in The Daily Beast, which included quotes from Charles Crawford.

On June 9, 2016, John Major and Tony Blair visited Northern Ireland to advocate for remaining within the European Union.

On June 10, 2016, The IN Crowd registered as an independent campaign for the referendum, which then received £76,000.00 in donations.

Between June 11–12, 2016, during a weekend, members of Downing Street attended a wedding.

Around this time, a meeting was held at Stronger In’s war room, where Downing Street remained committed to an economic message to remain in the European Union and overruled Stronger In.

By June 13, 2016, the Russian Twitter accounts collectively had tweeted less than 1,000 times a day.

After June 14, 2016, Darren Grimes received a donation of £50,000.00 from Anthony Clarke.

On June 15, 2016, The Financial Times published the article “Britain should vote to stay in the EU”.

“This newspaper has supported British membership of the EU from the outset in 1973. The Financial Times does not favour membership of the single currency. It makes no economic sense. But opting out of the euro is quite different from opting out of the EU, which would seriously damage the UK economy. Constructive engagement is vital when Europe confronts threats from Islamist extremism, migration, Russian aggrandisement and climate change. These can only be tackled collectively.” — The Financial Times

On June 16, 2016, Jo Cox, MP was shot and stabbed multiple times following a meeting with her constituency, leading to her death.

On June 19, 2016, The Independent published the article “The right choice is to remain”.

“Over the coming days The Independent will examine these key issues (the economy, security, immigration, identity) in more detail. But it is clear now that the best choice on Thursday must be a vote to remain inside the EU. The institution is not without its flaws of course — there is bureaucratic inefficiency and the maintenance of Strasbourg as the official seat of the European Parliament is wastefully expensive. But membership of the EU benefits our economy, boosts global security and aids our connectivity with the rest of Europe. The Independent has always stood for progressive liberalism, for open-minded internationalism and if there were ever a time to stand up decisively for those values, it is now.” — The Independent

The same day, Damian Collins MP tweeted: “Vote Remain in the referendum on 23rd June”, with references to Conservatives In, Stronger In and Kent Conservatives In.

On June 20, 2016, The Guardian published the article “The Guardian view on the EU referendum: keep connected and inclusive, not angry and isolated”.

“It is a fantasy to suppose that, if Britain votes to leave, these victors would want to maintain or extend protections for pensioners or workers. On the contrary. Human rights, equality, health and safety, and aid to refugees would be out of the window. Those who vote to leave as a protest against the elite will, in truth, be handing the keys to the very worst of that very elite. There would be no ‘taking back control’ for most working-class leave voters, just less control over their diminishing share than ever. Those who have not yet made up their mind in this campaign should ask themselves this: do you want to live in a Britain in the image of Nigel Farage? Yes or no? For that’s the choice on offer. If the answer is no, then vote remain.” — The Guardian

On June 21, 2016, Robert Lacey published the article “Why the Queen Should Oppose Brexit” in The Daily Beast.

“And while Buckingham Palace has rightly deplored the impropriety of disclosing Her Majesty’s private remarks, the Palace has been careful not to define her views, nor to deny that her sympathies might, on occasions, like those of many of her subjects, have veered towards Brexit.
‘Give me THREE good reasons,’ she has, apparently, been asking her dinner companions recently, ‘why Britain should be part of Europe?’” — The Daily Beast

The same day, Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party took out a wraparound advertisement in the Metro to push for Leave, which may have cost roughly £250,000.00.

On June 22, 2016, Veterans For Britain spent £100,000.00 with AggregateIQ.

Before June 23, 2016, Vote Leave donated a total of £675,315.00 to Darren Grimes for the BeLeave project. Grimes, alongside Veterans For Britain, soon spent some of the monies with AggregateIQ.

SARA MORRISON: “I’m very sorry that a young man like you have been so misguided. You will live to see it and I hope you don’t regret it.”
DARREN GRIMES: “I am absolutely certain that a Britain which can determine its own future is very much in our interest. As a young person, to decide to have a global future, and not a narrow-minded one, which focuses on one continent of the Earth, Britain is a global country.” — The Independent

“Then in the final weeks of the campaign, when Vote Leave began to reach its £7m spending limits yet wanted to spend more on Facebook adverts, it set up a process where a Vote Leave official would email Grimes with the offer of a donation to BeLeave.
Grimes would then reply, accepting, but asking the payment be made directly to AggregateIQ, the Canadian tech firm linked to Cambridge Analytica. The money was only ever transferred on paper.” — The Guardian

Between June 23–24, 2016, Russian Twitter accounts tweeted roughly 45,000 times with regards to the referendum vote.

“Facebook has said less than £1 was spent on Russian adverts designed to disrupt the Brexit vote, downplaying claims that meddling from the Kremlin helped swing last year’s referendum.
The US internet giant responded to an investigation from the Electoral Commission by saying the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organisation with links to the Russian government, spent just $0.97 (73p) in Britain during the two months of the EU referendum campaign.” — The Telegraph

On June 23, 2016, Russia’s troll bots used roughly 3,800 accounts and tweeted 1,102 tweets with the hashtag #ReasonsToLeaveEU.

“Iran also made an effort to influence British politics, launching attacks on former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, while mostly praising Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Twitter revealed posts from 770 Iranian accounts that had engaged in attempts at disinformation.” — Telegraph

After June 23, 2016, the Russian troll accounts continued to tweet about “Brexit”, moreso than what they had done prior to June 23.

Before June 24, 2016, President Tusk had spoken with all leaders within the European Union to form a united front in preparation for the result of the Brexit referendum, regardless of direction.

On June 24, 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union with 52% of the vote. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Cameron announced his resignation as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom outside of 10 Downing Street, with Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Theresa May considered successors. European officials also convened a meeting in Brussels to discuss the result. Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore drank in Westminster, and later attended a party at the Thames with Farage.

One of the voters to Remain may have been Mark Gettleson.

On the same day, Tessa Berenson published the article “Vladimir Putin: Brexit Is Result of ‘Arrogance’ From British Leadership” in TIME.

The same day, Miriam Elder published the article “The Big Winner Of Brexit Is Vladimir Putin” in BuzzFeed News.

“Brexit’s greatest winner is Vladimir Putin. For years now, he has sought ways to divide Europe, including both the EU and NATO, hoping for a collapse of unity in Europe just as the USSR and the Warsaw Pact did a quarter century ago. The U.K.’s exit from the EU will be celebrated widely inside Kremlin circles.” — Michael McFaul

Also the same day, Fiona Hill published the article “The ‘greatest catastrophe’ of the 21st century? Brexit and the dissolution of the U.K.” in Brookings Institute.

Also the same day, Steven Erlanger published the article “‘Brexit’ Aftershocks: More Rifts in Europe, and in Britain, Too” in The New York Times.

Also on the same day, Edward-Isaac Dovere, with contributions from Tom McTague, published the article “Why Obama couldn’t stop the Brexit” in Politico.

As well, on the same day, at 06:22 AM, Piotr Serafin wrote and distributed a five-paragraph document, titled “PEC messqges”, to European Union ambassadors to push for the EU27 to speak in unison to push the British Government to leave the European Union through Article 50.

At 11:57 A.M., President Juncker and Martin Selmayr wrote a joint statement released in the names of President Tusk, President Juncker, President Martin Schulz and Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

At some stage after this, both Didier Seeuws and Michel Barnier were selected by the European Union to lead Brexit negotiations in different ways.

After June 24, 2016, Gina Miller started to work on her attempts to slow down Brexit.

“On the night of the EU referendum, Miller was at home with her husband and their two children in Chelsea, central London. As her family slept, she sat up watching television. The result was a shock to her. ‘I felt like I was in a dream… the only thing I can compare it to is a similar feeling I had when I heard that Princess Diana had died.’
She felt compelled to act after her 11-year-old son woke up the next morning and burst into tears on hearing that Britain had voted to leave the EU.” — New Statesman

Also after June 24, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron selected Olly Robbins to lead the Brexit unit in the Cabinet Office.

Also after June 24, 2016, Prime Minister Cameron apologised to President Obama and European leaders over the result of the referendum.

On June 25, 2016, Michael McFaul published the article “How Brexit is a win for Putin” in The Washington Post.

The same day, Tom McTague, Alex Spence and Edward-Isaac Dovere published the article “How David Cameron blew it” in Politico.

The same day, Brad Parscale and Cambridge Analytica signed a preliminary initial contract for them to work with the Trump campaign.

On June 26, 2016, Steve Rosenberg published the article “EU referendum: What does Russia gain from Brexit?” in BBC News.

The same day, Boris Johnson published the article “I cannot stress too much that Britain is part of Europe — and always will be” in The Telegraph.

On the same day, David Lammy published the article “We need a second referendum. The consequences of Brexit are too grave” in The Guardian, which ended with a request to sign a petition for a second referendum.

“The referendum was advisory and non-binding, in contrast to the referendum on electoral reform in 2011 which imposed a legal obligation on the government to legislate. Almost 500 members of parliament declared themselves in favour of remain, and it is within their powers to stop this madness through a vote in parliament.
It is also within parliament’s powers to call a second referendum, now that the dust has begun to settle and the reality of a post-Brexit nation is coming into view. We need a second referendum at the very least, on the basis of a plan that is yet to even be drawn up.” — David Lammy, The Guardian

Also on the same day, Tony Blair published the article “Tony Blair: Brexit’s Stunning Coup” in The New York Times.

“If the people — usually a repository of common sense and practicality — do something that appears neither sensible nor practical, then it forces a period of long and hard reflection. My own politics is waking to this new political landscape. The same dangerous impulses are visible, too, in American politics, but the challenges of globalisation cannot be met by isolationism or shutting borders.” — Tony Blair, The New York Times

The same day, Tom McTague and Alex Spence published the article “Brexit? Maybe not, after all” in Politico.

Again, on the same day, European Union ambassadors formalised the decision and need for the United Kingdom to invoke Article 50 in order to leave the European Union.

On June 27, 2016, Matthew Chance published the article “Does Brexit leave the Kremlin smiling?” in CNN.

The same day, Tony Blair delivered a speech at J.P. Morgan’s inaugural Energy Equity Investor Conference, as he served as chairman of J.P. Morgan International Council. Later that day, Blair spoke at the 92nd Street Y which also doubled as a livecast.

The same day, Paul Manafort stopped the contract between Brad Parscale and Cambridge Analytica from taking effect due to concerns.

Also the same day, Prime Minister Cameron stated that the British Government and the Irish Government would enter Brexit negotiations that week.

On June 28, 2016, Mark Galeotti published the article “Why Vladimir Putin is cheering Brexit — and why he might soon regret it” in Vox.

On the same day, Dina Gusovsky published the article “Russia wins politically with UK leaving the EU, experts say” in CNBC.

“It’s a clear positive for Russia. Putin wants a weak Europe and a weak trans-Atlantic relationship, and it will help him undermine the U.S.-led sanctions regime as well as maintain a stronger lock on downstream energy relations to the continent. Publicly, Putin hasn’t made a meal of this. Privately, he’s surely rather pleased with himself.” — Ian Bremmer

Also the same day, Blair participated in an hour-long videocast chat with Michael Cembalest, hosted by J.P. Morgan.

On June 30, 2016, Mark R. Kennedy published the article “Brexit Is a Russian Victory” in Foreign Policy.

On the same day, Emily Glazer published the article “J.P. Morgan’s Brexit Ace Up Its Sleeve: Tony Blair” in The Wall Street Journal.

Between June 30–July 1, European Union leaders met in Brussels for a summit to discuss and formalise their Brexit positions, with the first day also attended by Prime Minister Cameron. Chancellor Merkel pushed for the indivisibility of the four freedoms, while Prime Minister Cameron hoped for a close relationship with the single market.

In or after the summer of 2016, Alexander Nix reached out to Julian Assange via e-mail and offered Cambridge Analytica’s services to release Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, with his offer rejected by Assange. Nix also e-mailed Rebekah Mercer and others about the exchange.

In the summer of 2016, Isabel Oakeshott was granted access to Banks’ e-mails to help with the future book, “The Bad Boys of Brexit”.

On July 2, 2016, Tom Sykes published the article “Inside The Royal Family Split Over Brexit” in The Daily Beast.

On July 3, 2016, Shane Harris and Gideon Resnick published the article “Will Brexit Masterminds Work for Trump?” in The Daily Beast, which was about the organisation Cambridge Analytica, who at the time were not hired by the Trump campaign.

On July 5, 2016, Russian goldmines were purchased by Sberbank.

On July 6, 2016, Belinda McRae and Andrew Lodder published the article “There’s a democratic case for a second referendum — this is how it can be done” in New Statesman.

On July 7, 2016, Foreign Secretary Hammond testified before a parliamentary committee and said that the European Union would fold to Russia without the United Kingdom being a member of the organisation.

“It’s no secret that the Russian have been working diligently… to try to persuade individual EU member states to object to the renewal of sanctions. I fear that in future such situations, an EU without Britain as an influential member may be less likely to take robust action and to sustain robust action against Russia.” — Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond

On July 8, 2016, the British Government responded to the online petition that the referendum result must be respected and that the United Kingdom would leave the European Union.

Between July 11–17, 2016, the Russian Government sold the Alrosa diamond mine stake during a private offering to a number of investors in a restricted group, one of which was Charlemagne Capital, which belonged to Mellon although investment decisions were made by a committee.

“Representatives of Mellon said he learned of the Alrosa deal from a journalist only last week and that, although he founded Charlemagne Capital and, at the time, owned 19% of it, he was a non-executive director, had no role in investment decisions and no knowledge of the acquisition.” — The Guardian

On July 11, 2016, Shaun Walker published the article “What Russia thinks of Brexit — and how it could gain from a fractured Europe” in The Guardian.

On July 13, 2016, Theresa May officially became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

“The country voted to leave the European Union, and as Prime Minister I will make sure that we leave the European Union.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

The same day, Andrew Foxall published the article “Why Putin Loves Brexit” in The New York Times.

“Such unity is no more. When 17.4 million Britons voted to leave the European Union on June 23, they did in a day what Mr. Putin could not achieve in over a decade and a half.” — The New York Times

On July 14, 2016, Alastair Campbell published the article “The Fight’s Not Over” in The New European, where he argued for a second referendum.

“Then come back to the country and put those options to the British public. The terms on which we leave. And the terms on which we could remain. A real choice of real options, rather than the fake choice between a Johnson nirvana of more money for NHS, Independence Day, cuddly toys for all; or a hell of Brussels bureaucracy, mass immigration and straight bananas.” — Alastair Campbell

On July 17, 2016, Arron Banks tweeted: “I’m buying gold at the moment & big mining stocks…”

Between July 18–20, 2016, Farage attended the Republican national convention in Cleveland, OH, although he did not meet Trump at the time. Farage attended the convention alongside George Cottrell. Farage met with Roger Stone and Alex Jones at an Italian restaurant in an attempt to meet with Trump. The next day, Stone contacted Paul Manafort in an attempt to arrange a meeting between Farage and Trump.

On July 21, 2016, Farage and Wigmore visited the Hilton Hotel and met with drunken staffers for Governor Phil Bryant. The staffers invited Farage and Wigmore to Mississippi.

On July 22, 2016, George Cottrell was arrested at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, IL by five agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. At the time, Cottrell was with Nigel Farage, Isabel Oakeshott and Andy Wigmore.

On July 24, 2016, Farage and Banks received Cottrell’s full rap sheet from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On July 26, 2016, Prime Minister May and Taoiseach Enda Kenny met with each other at 10 Downing Street and then delivered statements about their meeting.

“So we have agreed, as the Prime Minister has reiterated, that we would work together to ensure that the benefits of the peace process are preserved in any new arrangements which might emerge regarding the United Kingdom’s future relationship with the European Union. In particular, we both recognised that Ireland is the only EU member state that shares a land border with the United Kingdom. We are in full agreement that we do not wish to see any return to the borders of the past on the island of Ireland.” — Taoiseach Enda Kenny

In August 2016, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson pushed for the British Government to form ties with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, despite the Foreign Office expecting Hillary Clinton to win the Presidential election, an effort which would ultimately fail — with Ambassador Sir Kim Darroch being singled out for this.

The same month, lawyers at Facebook sent a letter to Wylie about Cambridge Analytica and Global Science Research’s data.

On August 3, 2016, Oliver Wright published the article “Fashion student given £625,000 to spend by Vote Leave” in The Times.

On August 4, 2016, The Standard published the article “Londoner’s Diary: Now Isabel Oakeshott gets stuck into all things Brexit”, which revealed the existence of a book project between Oakeshott and Banks.

Roughly around August 8, 2016, Farage met with Roger Stone.

On August 18, 2016, Nicholas Confessore, with contributions from Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Martin, published the article “How One Family’s Deep Pockets Helped Reshape Donald Trump’s Campaign” in The New York Times, which was about the Mercer family.

“Mr. Trump is also relying on Cambridge Analytica, a voter data firm backed by Mr. Mercer, whose staff members are working with Mr. Trump’s vendors to identify potential Trump supporters in the electorate, particularly among infrequent voters. A Mercer-backed super PAC supporting Mr. Trump is now being shepherded by David Bossie, a conservative activist whose own projects have been funded in part by the Mercers’ family foundation, according to tax documents.” — The New York Times

Before August 19, 2016, Banks, Wigmore and Farage were invited to attend a fundraiser for the Trump campaign in Mississippi.

On August 19, 2016, Ambassador Yakovenko met with Wigmore and Banks at the Ambassador’s residence, where the Ambassador said he did not expect Trump to win the election.

On August 20, 2016, Wigmore forwarded an e-mail to Sergey Fedichkin titled “Fw Cottrell docs — Eyes Only”, which contained 6 attachments of legal documents related to Cottrell’s arrest.

On August 24, 2016, Donald Trump hosted a rally in Mississippi, which was attended by Farage and Banks.

In the autumn of 2016, Stephen Kinnock MP started to push for an EFTA / EEA-based Brexit.

In September 2016, George Papadopoulos met with Tobis Ellwood at the United Nations General Assembly.

On September 5, 2016, the House of Commons debated a petition for a second referendum.

On September 7, 2016, Bo Rothstein published the article “It’s perfectly sensible to want a second EU referendum. Here’s why” in New Statesman.

Between September 19–20, 2016, Alexander Nix hosted a talk titled “The Power of Big Data and Psychographics” at the Concordia Annual Summit in New York.

On September 24, 2016, Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership contest for the Labour Party.

On September 28, 2016, an unknown public IP address may have accessed Isabel Oakeshott’s Dropbox, which included Banks’ e-mails and her own personal photographs / videos.

In October 2016, Transparency International released the report “Take Back Control: How big money undermines trust in politics”.

On October 2, 2016, Prime Minister May delivered a speech at the Conservative conference titled “Britain After Brexit: A Vision of a Global Britain”.

Around this time, the European Union started to discuss the Good Friday Agreement with officials while British and Irish civil servants met for a 2 day summit in the Foreign Office in London to discuss Brexit.

On October 7, 2016, Adam Lusher published the article “More than half of donations to EU referendum campaigns came from just ten wealthy donors” in The Independent, which was about Transparency International’s report.

On October 9, 2016, Farage and others attended the United States presidential debate in St. Louis, MO.

On October 12, 2016, Michel Barnier met with Taoiseach Enda Kenny to push for ending negotiations with the British.

On October 13, 2016, Martin Fletcher published the article “Arron Banks: the man who bought Brexit” in New Statesman.

“As an ardent Remainer, I am expecting to dislike the man intensely, but I find him disarmingly humorous and frank. We chat for nearly four hours. Whether he is merely generous with his time, or loves the attention, I cannot tell.” — Martin Fletcher

The same day, the opening arguments of Gina Miller v. the British Government over Article 50 were presided over by Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, Sir Terence Etherton and Lord Justice Sales, with Miller represented by Lord Pannick QC.

On October 14, 2016, Tom Sykes published the article “Gina Miller vs Theresa May: The Making of an Anti-Brexit Star” in The Daily Beast.

On October 16, 2016, Luke Harding published the article “Offshore secrets of Brexit backer Arron Banks revealed in Panama Papers” in The Guardian, which discussed his connections to PRI Holdings and previous connections to STM Fidecs. Soon after, Banks threatened to sue The Guardian.

On October 20, 2016, Farage and Banks attended the final presidential debate between Trump and Hillary Clinton in Las Vegas, NV.

On October 25, 2016, Nick Hopkins and Rowena Mason published the article “Exclusive: what Theresa May really thinks about Brexit shown in leaked recording” in The Guardian.

In November 2016, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stated that the European Union would take a hardline stance in Brexit negotiations.

In early November 2016, Antonia Flockton was questioned about Vote Leave’s donation of £625,000.00 to Darren Grimes by Paul Flynn MP of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.

On November 3, 2016, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, the Lord Chief Justice, delivered a judgement that Parliament — not the government — had the power to trigger Brexit and Article 50, which was celebrated by Gina Miller.

On November 6, 2016, Gina Miller and Nigel Farage debated with each other during The Andrew Marr Show.

On November 7, 2016, Deloitte compiled a document which included an update with regards to Brexit.

“Individual Departments have been busily developing their projects to implement Brexit, resulting in well over 500 projects, which are beyond the capacity and capability of Government to execute quickly. One Department estimates that it needs a 40% increase in staff to cope with its Brexit projects. In other words, every Department has developed a ‘bottom up’ plan of what the impact of Brexit could be — and its plan to cope with the ‘worst case’. Although necessary, this falls considerably short of having a ‘Government plan for Brexit’ because it has no prioritisation and no link to the overall negotiation strategy.” — Deloitte Memo

Between November 7–8, 2016, the British Government appealed to the Supreme Court over the verdict delivered by Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd on November 3.

On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump was elected as the 45th President of the United States.

On November 9, 2016, Prime Minister May congratulated President-elect Donald Trump on his election victory in the United States.

After November 9, 2016, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox considered speaking with Farage before holding meetings with Trump advisers, only to be stopped by 10 Downing Street.

On November 10, 2016, Serena Kutchinsky published the article “‘This is bigger than just Brexit’: how Gina Miller held the government to account over the EU” in New Statesman.

The same day, Prime Minister May and President-elect Trump spoke with each other over the telephone at 01:45 PM, where they discussed a free trade deal and for Prime Minister May to visit the White House— President-elect Trump’s tenth call with a world leader that day (Ireland was received beforehand, where Premier Enda Kenny was invited to the White House).

“The Telegraph understands that ministers will be forced to seek Mr Farage’s advice because they have no links to the President-elect’s inner circle.” — The Telegraph

On November 11, 2016, Sebastian Payne published the article “How Leave won: behind the scenes in the battle for Brexit” in The Financial Times.

On November 12, 2016, Nigel Farage became the first British politician to meet with President-elect Trump at Trump Tower in New York for one hour, having arrived with no invitation after Farage contacted Bannon. Farage and President-elect Trump spoke about the British Government’s comments about Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign and a post-Brexit trade deal. Other attendees included Gerry Gunster, Aaron Banks, Andy Wigmore and Raheem Kassam, and they overheard discussions about selections for White House Chief of Staff. During this time, Banks and Wigmore provided the Trump transition team the contact details for 10 Downing Street in exchange for a telephone number for the transition team.

On November 13, 2016, Steven Swinford published the article “Exclusive: Nigel Farage reveals Donald Trump’s team has ‘reservations’ about Theresa May’s Government” in The Telegraph.

“Sources said Mrs May is ‘looking forward to the next chapter’ and does not believe her previous comments will affect her relationship with the next US president.” — The Telegraph, November 10, 2016

“‘He said he had a nice conversation, although some of his team had reservations about what members of the cabinet have said during the election,’ Mr. Farage said. ‘Believe you me, his team are conscious of the comments.’” — The Telegraph, November 13, 2016

On November 15, 2016, a document compiled by Deloitte was obtained by The Times, which suggested that Whitehall had 500 Brexit projects and needed another 30,000 employees.

The same day, Alina Polyakova, Marlene Laruelle, Stefan Meister and Neil Barnett published the article “The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses” in the Atlantic Council, where they accused the United Kingdom Independence Party, Jeremy Corbyn, Daniel Kawczynski MP, John Whittingdale, MP, George Galloway and the British National Party as pro-Russian actors — Arron Banks was also, at one stage, listed as a pro-Russian actor.

The same day, Banks and Wigmore met with Ambassador Yakovenko for lunch, where he provided the telephone number for Trump’s transition team to the Ambassador.

After November 15, 2016, Banks and Farage reached out to the United States Embassy in London, then individually met with embassy officials to describe their contacts with Russian individuals when the media painted them as pro-Russian actors. Wigmore met with diplomats five or six times and turned over documents. One of the diplomats was Thomas E. William at the United States Department of State.

On November 18, 2016, Mario Diaz published the article “The Mainstream Media Are Dead” in CNSnews.

Between November 21–December 3, 2016, Carole Cadwalladr contacted Jonathan Albright to discuss Google searches, where they discussed Cambridge Analytica’s usage of trackers on websites to data-mine.

On November 21, 2016, Max Kutner published the article “Meet Robert Mercer, the Mysterious Billionaire Benefactor of Breitbart” in Newsweek.

“In an email to Newsweek, Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for the PAC, denied the allegations. ‘The complaint is filled with falsehoods and misinformation,’ he wrote. ‘Mr. Bannon never was associated with [Make America Number 1].’ As for the use of Conway’s company and Cambridge Analytica, Gidley wrote, ‘At each company, procedures are in place to allow it to work for multiple clients as allowed in the law.’ A Trump campaign spokesperson did not respond to Newsweek’s request for comment.” — Newsweek

On November 22, 2016, President-elect Donald Trump tweeted: “Many people would like to see @Nigel_Farage represent Great Britain as their Ambassador to the United States. He would do a great job!”

On November 23, 2016, 10 Downing Street and the British Government declined to replace Ambassador Sir Darroch with Nigel Farage as the British Ambassador to the United States.

The same day, a reception was hosted at the Ritz by Banks, David Barclay and Frederick Barclay in Farage’s honour for 120 guests, which included Jacob Rees-Mogg and John Mills, with David Davis, Jim Mellon, Paul Sykes, Kate Hoey, Paul Nuttall, Mike Hookem, Richard Littlejohn, Simon Heffer, Andrew Pierce and Isabel Oakeshott invited to the reception. The drinks were paid for by Banks, Wigmore, Tice and Lord Pearson.

On November 24, 2016, Josh Rogin during a live segment on CNN accused Arron Banks of being a Russian agent, which led to Banks threatening to sue Rogin.

On November 25, 2016, the British Government closed down the petition for a second referendum.

On November 30, 2016, Sam Knight published the article “Nigel Farage On The Story Behind His Friendship With Trump” in The New Yorker.

The same day, Jim Waterson published the article “Vote Leave, The Canadian IT Company, And The £725,000 Donations” in BuzzFeed News.

On December 3, 2016, Tom Sykes published the article “Tony Blair’s Back! And He Wants To Block Brexit” in The Daily Beast.

On December 4, 2016, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Google, democracy and the truth about internet search” in The Guardian, which included mention of Cambridge Analytica.

On December 9, 2016, Charlie Cooper published the article “The real Mr. Brexit” in Politico, which was about Olly Robbins.

On December 10, 2016, Deloitte apologised to the British Government for the leaked memo and offered to end any bidding for government contracts for 6 months.

On December 14, 2016, during an emergency meeting at the House of Commons about Syria, Ben Bradshaw MP stated that Russian hackers had swayed the vote towards the Leave campaign.

“I don’t think we have even begun to wake up to what Russia is doing when it comes to cyber warfare. Not only their interference, now proven, in the American presidential campaign, probably in our own referendum last year. We don’t have the evidence for that yet, but I think it’s highly probable.” — Ben Bradshaw, MP

On December 20, 2016, David Davis sent a letter to Lord Boswell of Aynho at the House of Lords with regards to his report, “Scrutinising Brexit — the role of Parliament”.

On January 7, 2017, President-elect Trump tweeted: “I look very much forward to meeting Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington in the Spring. Britain, a longtime U.S. ally, is very special!”

Between January 16–20, 2017, Banks and Michael Heaver founded the organisation Westmonster, based on the Drudge Report.

On January 17, 2017, Prime Minister May delivered a speech at Lancaster House about the negotiating objectives for exiting the European Union.

“That would be an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe. And it would not be the act of a friend. Britain would not — indeed we could not — accept such an approach. And while I am confident that this scenario need never arise — while I am sure a positive agreement can be reached — I am equally clear that no deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

On January 19, 2017, Banks, Farage and Wignmore hosted a party at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, DC.

Around January 20, 2017, Banks considered forming a citizens’ movement known as the “Patriotic Alliance”.

On January 20, 2017, Steven Erlanger and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura published the article “Godfather of ‘Brexit’ Takes Aim at the British Establishment” in The New York Times.

Between January 23–29, 2017, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson requested for Wigmore to leave his position as a Trade and Investment Envoy for Belize, who then left the role.

On January 27, 2017, Prime Minister May visited President Trump at the White House. After her visit to Washington, Prime Minister May took a flight to Turkey to negotiate a deal involving BAE Systems.

By February 2017, the European Commission had written a confidential note titled “Brexit and the Border Between Ireland and the U.K.”, which suggested a soft land border for goods.

In February 2017, Carole Cadwalladr initiated her investigation into Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica, at a time where she did not have a permanent pass into The Guardian Headquarters.

On February 2, 2017, the British Government published a white paper: “The United Kingdom’s exit from and new partnership with the European Union White Paper”.

The same day, Francis Elliott published the article “Leave crusader loses Belize envoy job after Johnson intervention” in The Times.

On February 3, 2017, Prime Minister May attended a meeting of European leaders in Malta, where she cancelled a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Merkel. Prime Minister May was also not allowed to attend a meeting about threats in Europe.

On February 5, 2017, The New York Times published the article “Split by ‘Brexit,’ May and Merkel Diverge on Wider Issues, Too”.

On February 8, 2017, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill passed its third reading by 494–122 votes. This included a rejection of Tim Marron’s amendment to add a second referendum clause, with a majority of 307 votes refusing.

• Labour Rebels: Lyn Brown, Cathrine West, Daniel Zeichner, Andy Slaughter, Dr. Rupa Huq
• Conservative Rebels: Ken Clarke, Tania Mathias, Andrew Tyrie

On February 15, 2017, Adam Ramsay and Peter Geoghegan published the article “The ‘dark money’ that paid for Brexit” in Open Democracy, which focused on the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland and their donation of over £250,000.00 to the Leave campaign.

On February 16, 2017, Banks published a press release where he announced that he had issued formal legal proceedings against the Atlantic Council — for their report, “The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses” — and three members of Parliament for accusing him and Leave.EU of being funded by the Kremlin and having ties to the Russian Government.

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr searched for the phrase “mainstream media is…” and clicked on a link hosted by CNSnews, which led to the article “The Mainstream Media Are Dead” written by Mario Diaz on November 18, 2016, then started to research the organisation and Robert Mercer (instead of acknowledging any part of Mario’s article).

On February 17, 2017, Tony Blair delivered a speech at Open Britain, hosted by Bloomberg, where he pushed for people to “rise up” against Brexit. During the speech, Blair mentioned that he was launching an institute dedicated to revising Brexit.

The same day, Matea Gold and Frances Stead Sellers published the article “After working with Trump’s campaign, British data firm eyes new U.S. government contracts” in The Washington Post.

Between February 20–26, 2017, Cadwalladr met with Wigmore at a Pret a Manger near Westminster to discuss Cambridge Analytica and their work with the Leave campaign.

On February 23, 2017, Ben Bradshaw MP questioned whether Russia had meddled in the Brexit vote.

On February 24, 2017, Cambridge Analytica said that they were in touch with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The same day, Patrick Foster and Martin Evans published the article “Exclusive: How a tiny Canadian IT company helped swing the Brexit vote for Leave” in The Telegraph.

On February 26, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Robert Mercer: the big data billionaire waging war on mainstream media” in The Guardian.

The same day, Farage visited the White House and met with President Trump’s advisers, including Steve Bannon, to discuss Brexit negotiations for three hours. Farage later tweeted: “Dinner with The Donald.”, which had a photograph of himself having dinner with President Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Governor Rick Scott and Benny Johnson.

The same day, Harry Cole and Natasha Clark published the article “US President Donald Trump invites gleeful Nigel Farage to dine with him and Ivanka after asking him for update on Theresa May’s Brexit plans at White House meeting” in The Sun.

After February 26, 2017, Cadwalladr started to contact former employees at Cambridge Analytica through LinkedIn.

In March 2017, Carole Cadwalladr identified Mark Gettleson as a connection between Cambridge Analytica and Vote Leave, but Gettleson refused to speak with Cadwalladr.

On March 2, 2017, Stephen Kinnock MP sent a letter to Claire Bassett at the Election Commission and requested for them to investigate Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica’s relationship, and whether they had breached the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

On March 7, 2017, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee published the report “Lessons learned from the EU Referendum”.

“There was no proper planning for a Leave vote so the EU referendum opened up much new controversy and left the Prime Minister’s credibility destroyed.” — “Lessons learned from the EU Referendum”

On March 9, 2017, Farage visited the Ecuadorian Embassy in an attempt to meet with Julian Assange, when he was spotted by Ian Stubbings, who tweeted: “Genuine scoop: just saw Nigel Farage enter the Ecuadorian Embassy.” Farage remained in the Ecuadorian Embassy for 40 minutes and was asked about his visit by BuzzFeed News. Farage had visited on behalf of LBC Radio.

The same day, Marie Le Conte published the article “Nigel Farage Just Visited The Ecuadorian Embassy In London” in BuzzFeed News.

On March 10, 2017, Adam Bienkov published the article “Leaked emails reveal Nigel Farage’s long-standing links to Julian Assange” in Business Insider.

On March 16, 2017, the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill received Royal Assent.

On March 19, 2017, Farage went on a fishing trip with Representative Dana Rohrabacher.

On March 22, 2017, President Trump tweeted: “Spoke to U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May today to offer condolences on the terrorist attack in London. She is strong and doing very well.”

Before or on March 24, 2017, Banks and Farage spoke with each other about the resignation of Douglas Carswell from the United Kingdom Independence Party.

On March 24, 2017, Cadwalladr met with Banks at a pub in Islington, where she asked him about President Trump’s connects to Russia. Prior to this, Banks attended a trade show hosted by Jim Mellon.

“We had no Russian money into Brexit. I’ve had two very nice lunches with the Russian ambassador, where Andy and I got completely pissed. And that’s it. Why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t I go and have lunch with him? We’d met diplomats and all sorts of different people. Not a single penny of Russian money has been put into Brexit.” — Arron Banks

On March 28, 2017, Alan Johnson published the article “Why Brexit Is Best for Britain: The Left-Wing Case” in The New York Times.

On March 29, 2017, Prime Minister May sent a letter to President Donald Tusk, where she formally began the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union through the use of Article 50. The letter itself was hand-delivered by Sir Tim Barrow to President Tusk.

“Today, therefore, I am writing to give effect to the democratic decision of the people of the United Kingdom. I hereby notify the European Council in accordance with Article 50(2) of the Treaty on European Union of the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the European Union. In addition, in accordance with the same Article 50(2) as applied by Article 106a of the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, I hereby notify the European Council of the United Kingdom’s intention to withdraw from the European Atomic Energy Community. References in this letter to the European Union should therefore be taken to include a reference to the European Atomic Energy Community.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

In response to the letter, Guy Verhofstadt and Gianni Pittella accused Prime Minister May of blackmailing the European Union due to her warnings that leaving without a deal would affect national security discussions. President Juncker said that the United Kingdom would regret its vote to leave.

“I tried to be a gentleman towards a lady, so I didn’t even use or think about the use of the word blackmail. I think the security of our citizens is far too important to start a trade-off of one and the other. Both are absolutely necessary in the future partnership without bargaining this one against the other.” — Guy Verhofstadt

“It would be outrageous to play with people’s lives in these negotiations. This has not been a good start by Theresa May. It feels like blackmail, but security is good for all our citizens and not a bargaining chip. We still hope that Theresa May can get back on the right track… this was not a smart move.” — Gianni Pittella

After March 29, 2017, Michel Barnier requested for the United Kingdom to be prevented from stopping the Article 50 process unless there was agreement with the 27 member states, which was then adopted into a resolution. The push was revealed to reporters by Gianni Pittella during a dinner in Strasbourg.

“The choice of the British people, however respectable that may be, does not fit into the march of history — not European history and not global history.” — Michel Barnier

Also after March 29, 2017, a former male employee at Cambridge Analytica spoke with Cadwalladr and pushed for her to find and meet Chris Wylie. Cadwalladr then located Wylie, although he refused to speak with her at the time.

“Throughout, Cadwalladr was talking and working with Wylie almost daily, a relationship that illustrates her journalistic style: She does not operate like a traditional reporter, favouring objectivity and distance; instead, she becomes close to her subjects, intensely — and her critics would argue, unethically — so.” — The Atlantic

“All our communication on this story was done via Signal, an encrypted app. Documents were kept on offline computers. At one point, Wylie collapsed and ended up in hospital (he suspected poisoning). At another, he was photographed in the street on the way to his lawyer’s office and the photo was texted to him from an unknown number. He never found out who sent it.” — The Guardian

By April 2017, the Republic of Ireland had negotiated with the European Union for Northern Ireland to become a member of the European Union in the event Ireland ever successfully reunified.

In April 2017, Cadwalladr had prepared her Cambridge Analytica story and initially presented it to The Observer, and the editors informed her it would be a short news story — she then presented her findings to an all-female team at The Observer’s New Review.

The same month, the European Union published their negotiation bible for Brexit.

On April 2, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Arron Banks: ‘Brexit was a war. We won. There’s no turning back now’” in The Guardian.

On April 5, 2017, the European Parliament passed a resolution at 516–133 votes (with 50 abstentions) to have phased negotiations with the British Government. At this point, the European Union requested roughly EUR 60 billion from the Treasury Department.

On April 7, 2017, Daniel Boffey published the article “Barnier ‘lobbied to stop May withdrawing article 50 in two years’” in The Guardian.

On April 12, 2017, Isobel Thompson published the article “Did Russia Hack The Brexit Vote?” in Vanity Fair.

The same day, Asa Bennett published the article “No, Russia didn’t deliver Brexit — the will of the people cannot be hacked” in The Telegraph.

On April 18, 2017, Prime Minister May called for a general election.

On April 19, 2017, Gina Miller prepared to found the organisation Best For Britain and created a GoFundMe crowdfunding page.

On April 21, 2017, the Electoral Commission launched an investigation into Leave.EU’s spending due to Cambridge Analytica’s involvement during the referendum vote.

On April 23, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “When Nigel Farage met Julian Assange” in The Guardian.

The same day, Tim Farron of the Liberal Democrats announced that the party would support a second referendum on Brexit in their manifesto.

On April 24, 2017, Tony Blair published the article “The way to fight the Tories in June’s election is to turn Brexit against them” in The Guardian.

The same day, Open Britain released a list of 20 Brexit-supporting seats to push for their removal, including Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa Villiers, Kate Hoey, James Berry and Steve Baker.

“Lord Mandelson, an Open Britain board member, claimed it was counterproductive for prime minister Theresa May to enter Brexit negotiations with a rigid set of red lines and said he believed millions of jobs were at stake.”
[…]
“Stephen Dorrell, the former Tory MP who chairs European Movement, said: ‘This election is about something much bigger than party politics — it is about our future relationship with the rest of Europe.
Pro-Europeans need to stand up and be counted between now and 8 June. The supporters of our organisations want to be know where they can make a difference in this campaign and we are providing the tools for them to be able to.’” — The Guardian

On April 26, 2017, Gina Miller and Eloise Todd officially founded Best For Britain (officially registered as UK-EU Open Policy Limited), having raised £300,000.00 in crowdfunding and working with the organisation Strategic Voting Canada.

After April 26, 2017, Best For Britain crossed paths with Mike Butcher.

Also after April 26, 2017, George Soros donated £400,000.00 to Best For Britain and Clive Cowdery also donated monies to the organisation. Best For Britain later donated funds to Tulip Siddiq, Tom Brake, Ed Davey and Caroline Lucas, while the organsiation was supported by Andrew Adonis and Tim Farron.

On May 7, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked” in The Guardian, which used Christopher Wylie as one of the many sources. At some stage, the initial story was rewritten and all references to Sophie Schmidt and Eric Schmidt were removed.

“AggregateIQ holds the key to unravelling another complicated network of influence that Mercer has created. A source emailed me to say he had found that AggregateIQ’s address and telephone number corresponded to a company listed on Cambridge Analytica’s website as its overseas office: ‘SCL Canada’. A day later, that online reference vanished.” — The Guardian

“And through it all, Wylie and I, plus a handful of editors and a small, international group of academics and researchers, have known that — at least in 2014 — that certainly wasn’t the case, because Wylie has the paper trail. In our first phone call, he told me he had the receipts, invoices, emails, legal letters — records that showed how, between June and August 2014, the profiles of more than 50 million Facebook users had been harvested. Most damning of all, he had a letter from Facebook’s own lawyers admitting that Cambridge Analytica had acquired the data illegitimately.” — The Guardian

After May 7, 2017, due to the removal of Sophie Schmidt’s name from The Guardian by Carole Cadwalladr, Wylie ultimately lost trust in The Guardian, although he himself did not name Sophie to Cadwalladr. This led to Katharine Viner at The Guardian forming a partnership with Dean Banquet at The New York Times on behalf of Wylie over the subject, while Wylie contacted the lawyer Gavin Millar.

However, at one stage, Cadwalladr threatened to pull cooperation with The New York Times in exchange for The Washington Post.

“Any trust I had in The Guardian was wrecked when the paper failed to stand by its own reporting.” — Christopher Wylie

“Schmidt bullied a British newspaper using British privacy laws. It’s extraordinary that the daughter of Eric Schmidt — the man who says that privacy is dead — would be using U.K. privacy laws to get herself taken out of the piece. News organisations have difficult choices to make, don’t have an endless pot of money, and have to make hard choices. It’s a measure of the difficulty of publishing this work that The Guardian decided they couldn’t defend that one.” — Carole Cadwalladr

Also after May 7, 2017, an investigation was opened by British officials into Cambridge Analytica, which led to authorities contacting Cadwalladr to provide information — despite being advised by The Guardian’s lawyers not to provide information, she shared her reporting and had former Cambridge Analytica employees contact the authorities without informing The New York Times or Channel 4 News of her actions.

On May 10, 2017, The Star in Kenya revealed that President Uhuru Kenyatta had hired Cambridge Analytica to work with the Jubilee Party.

On May 15, 2017, Tony Blair spoke with Alastair Campbell in a video interview for GQ, where he compared the media outlets The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Sun and The Express to a cartel and a mafia for their pressure campaign on Prime Minister May to deliver Brexit.

On May 19, 2017, Nigel Farage was interviewed by Zeit Online, where he denied receiving any Russian funding and declined to discuss his visit to Assange, citing journalism.

“No Russian money at all. That’s ridiculous. What you are talking about is conspiracy. I never received a penny from Russia. I wouldn’t have taken it, even if it had been offered. This campaign wasn’t about money. It was about messages, good clear messages.” — Nigel Farage

The same day, Nico Hines published the article “WikiLeaks: Inside the Farage-Assange-Trump Connection” in The Daily Beast.

In June 2017, Alok Sharma left his position as a Foreign Office minister.

On June 1, 2017, Stephanie Kirchgaessner, Nick Hopkins and Luke Harding published the article “Nigel Farage is ‘person of interest’ in FBI investigation into Trump and Russia” in The Guardian.

“Sources who spoke to the Guardian said it was Farage’s proximity to people at the heart of the investigation that was being examined as an element in their broader inquiry into how Russia may have worked with Trump campaign officials to influence the US election.
‘One of the things the intelligence investigators have been looking at is points of contact and persons involved,’ one source said. ‘If you triangulate Russia, WikiLeaks, Assange and Trump associates the person who comes up with the most hits is Nigel Farage.
He’s right in the middle of those relationships. He turns up over and over again. There’s a lot of attention being paid to him.’
The source mentioned Farage’s links to Roger Stone, Trump’s long-time political adviser who has admitted being in contact with Guccifer 2.0, a hacker whom US intelligence agencies believe to be a Kremlin agent.” — The Guardian

“In response to the Guardian article, it has taken me a long time to finish reading because I am laughing so much. This hysterical attempt to associate me with the Putin regime is a result of the liberal elite being unable to accept Brexit and the election of President Trump.” — Nigel Farage

On June 7, 2017, Annabelle Dickson and Tom McTague published the article “Jeremy Corbyn’s secret weapon” in Politico.

On June 8, 2017, the Conservative Party won the general election with 42.4% of the vote and 317 seats to Labour’s 262, allowing Prime Minister May to remain in her position.

On June 9, 2017, Gina Miller quit her position at Best For Britain.

Between June 12–25, 2017, the Russian Embassy sent a letter to The Guardian, personally addressed to Cadwalladr, questioning her journalistic ability.

On June 22, 2017, Nicholas Vinocur published the article “Emmanuel Macron’s Brexit game plan” in Politico, which discussed President Macron’s desire to increase Franco-German influence on the world using the European Union as a lever during Brexit negotiations.

The same day, Sir Kim Darroch wrote a diplomatic cable to Sir Mark Sedwill, where he declared that the Trump Administration was “inept” and “utterly disfunctional”, and a claim that President Trump was indebted to Russians. The memo was sent before a National Security Council discussion on the UK-US relationship.

“My only disagreement with the slides — I don’t think this Administration will ever look competent.” — Sir Kim Darroch

“And referring to allegations of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia — since largely disproved — the memo says: ‘The worst cannot be ruled out.’”
[…]
“But, crucially, the diplomat also highlighted how the President spends his evenings phoning his friends outside the administration ‘seeking reinforcement or a different take’. Many of these friends have been ‘cultivated’ by hte British, Sir Kim boasted.” — The Daily Mail

In July 2017, the All-Party Parliamentary Group On EU Relations was founded, with members including Anna Soubry and Chuka Umunna.

After the formation of the All-Party Parliamentary Group On EU Relations, Umunna was approached to become a leader in coordinating anti-Brexit organisations.

Between July 3–9, 2017, Nicholas Watt of BBC Newsnight suggested that the referendum on the European Union may be stopped.

“I’m beginning to hear talk, in some quarters, that Brexit may not actually happen.” — Nicholas Watt

On July 11, 2017, Matt Kelly published the article “Brexit can still be stopped” in Politico.

“So, should there be a second vote, once the terms of the negotiated Brexit are known? Six months ago, I thought a second referendum a good idea. Today I don’t.
There isn’t time, and making that kind of a decision isn’t the public’s job. It never was. The job of overturning Brexit falls to our MPs: the 650 men and women freshly mandated to represent our best interests.” — Matt Kelly

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr tweeted: “What *is* the story here? New photo of Farage emerges. With ‘Putin’s favourite congressman’ & associate of Paul Manafort — @DanaRohrabacher”.

On July 14, 2017, William Cash published the article “Nigel Farage’s fixer and convicted fraudster, George Cottrell, on how he survived US prison” in The Telegraph.

On July 16, 2017, Blair was interviewed by Sophy Ridge of Sky News, where he stated his belief that Brexit could be stopped.

“I think it’s possible now that Brexit doesn’t happen. I think it’s absolutely necessary that it doesn’t happen because I think every day is bringing us fresh evidence that it’s doing us damage economically, certainly doing us damage politically.” — Tony Blair

On July 17, 2017, Tony Blair said he was incorrect about Jeremy Corbyn and that he saw a possibility of him becoming Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

On July 19, 2017, Nacha Cattan published the article “Trump’s Big-Data Gurus Scout Presidential Candidate in Mexico” in Bloomberg.

On July 28, 2017, Prime Minister Muscat was interviewed by De Volkskrant, where he expressed his belief that Brexit could be stopped.

“The will of the people can have disastrous consequences, history teaches us. I could name some examples, but they’re so horrendous they’d raise the wrath of my British friends. For the first time, I’m starting to believe that Brexit will not happen. I am seeing hopeful signs that indicate things will change. I see encouraging signs that the tide is turning.” — Prime Minister Joseph Muscat

By July 30, 2017, Banks had been reached out to by the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States presidential election, potentially under threat of subpoena.

On August 3, 2017, Sam Bright published the article “After Trump, ‘big data’ firm Cambridge Analytica is now working in Kenya” in BBC News.

On August 6, 2017, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat tweeted: “It was a pleasure hosting Tony and Cherie Blair and sharing so many insights with them -JM”.

On August 7, 2017, James Chapman tweeted: “Anna [Soubry] is a proper Conservative and therefore her first concerns are jobs and sound money. Not off a cliff Brexit”. At the time, Chapman was in his holiday villa on the island of Spetses.

On August 8, 2017, James Chapman tweeted: “Past time for sensible MPs in all parties to admit Brexit is a catastrophe, come together In new party if need be, and reverse it #euref19”.

On August 11, 2017, Chapman was interviewed by John Humphrys at BBC Newsnight.

“The hard Brexit plan that Mrs. May is pursuing is going to take our economy off a cliff, is going to make Black Wednesday look like a picnic. And when that happens, the Conservative Party will never be in power again.” — James Chapman

On the same day, Jane Merrick published the article “How a plot to stop Brexit is being hatched on a Greek island” in CNN.

On August 16, 2017, Representative Dana Rohrabacher met with Julian Assange for three hours at the Ecuadorian Embassy, which was arranged by Charles Johnson, who also attended the meeting.

On August 25, 2017, it was revealed that Tony Blair was scheduled to meet with President Juncker on August 31.

On August 31, 2017, Tony Blair met with President Jean-Claude Juncker to discuss Brexit negotiations.

In the autumn of 2017, the Grassroots Coordinating Group started to take form under the leadership of Umunna.

In September 2017, Steve Bray started to appear at the Old Palace Yard near Westminster dressed in a European Union attire to stay for 7 hours each day to yell “STOP BREXIT”, having arrived from South Wales. In his first week in London, Bray was homeless, although he eventually founded the Stand of Defiance European Movement (SODEM).

The same month, Mark Malloch-Brown joined the organisation Best For Britain.

On September 9, 2017, Andy Wigmore tweeted: “Spoken with them already thanks” in response to an anonymous Twitter account’s request for him to speak with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team.

On September 18, 2017, Adam Ramsay and Peter Geoghegan published the article “Revealed: how loopholes allowed pro-Brexit campaign to spend ‘as much as necessary to win’” in Open Democracy.

On September 22, 2017, Prime Minister May delivered a speech in Florence about cooperation between the United Kingdom and the European Union, and the current state of play with Brexit.

Around September 29, 2017, the Good Law Project created a fundraising campaign through CrowdJustice to have the Electoral Commission investigate Vote Leave and AggregateIQ.

On September 29, 2017, the Good Law Project sent a complaint letter to the Electoral Commission about the closure of the investigation into Vote Leave and AggregateIQ.

In October 2017, Farage denied that he was a “bag man” between President Trump and Julian Assange.

The same month, Nadine Dorries MP called for Philip Hammond to be removed from his position due to his lack of enthusiasm for Brexit.

On October 1, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “British courts may unlock secrets of how Trump campaign profiled US voters” in The Guardian, which acted as a profile on Professor David Carroll, who had created a CrowdJustice fundraising page “Take Back Our Voter Data” to fight Cambridge Analytica.

Around October 7, 2017, Jessica Simor sent a letter to Prime Minister May to request the release of specific legal advice given to her that Article 50 could be revoked.

On October 9, 2017, Prime Minister May spoke at the House of Commons to the Members of Parliament, where she said progress had been made with the Brexit negotiations, and that people should prepare for all possibilities, although she stated that the United Kingdom would be subject to European Court of Justice rulings during a planned two-year transition period.

On October 10, 2017, Prime Minister May was interviewed by Iain Dale at LBC radio, where she refused to answer whether she would vote Remain or Leave in the event of a second referendum, although she ruled out a second referendum.

The same day, Nadine Dorries MP and Kemi Badenoch MP shared a few WhatsApp messages with each other in the European Research Group (comprised of 40–50 members) as they discussed countries, their trade agreements, the Customs Union and unique deals. Nadine then asked Christopher Howarth about the subject. It is possible — though unconfirmed — that Rebecca Ryan was a member of this same group.

NADINE DORRIES MP: “Is there any reason why, if countries outside of the EU are in the CU, we can’t remain in the CU going forward?”
KEMI BADENOCH MP: “My understanding is that it’s the CU that stops us from having separate, independent trade deals with non EU countries.”
NADINE DORRIES MP: “But, other countries who are members of the CU do. That’s why I asked. Do they have exceptions? This was a question in a discussion last night. I need to find out what countries are members and have free trade agreements with other countries first. Christopher H, do you know the answer to that? Thanks Kemi”

The same day, Marco T. Bastos and Dan Mercea published the article “The Brexit Botnet and User-Generated Hyperpartisan News” in SAGE Journals, although they identified Milo Yiannopoulos’s account as a suspected bot. However, the paper has zero mention of Russian involvement.

On October 12, 2017, the Electoral Commission sent a letter to the Good Law Project and informed them that the investigation into Vote Leave and AggregateIQ would not be reopened.

On October 17, 2017, Damian Collins MP informed BuzzFeed News that he was prepared to question Facebook about foreign interference in both the British referendum and the 2017 general election.

On October 19, 2017, leaders at the European Union met with each other to discuss whether Brexit negotiations had progressed enough.

The same day, Damian Collins MP sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, where he requested information about Russian-linked accounts used for Facebook advertisements and pages as part of the Select Committee For Digital, Culture, Media and Sports’ investigation into fake news. Collins also sent another letter to Dara Nasr at Twitter about the paper published by Bastos and Mercea on October 10, 2017.

Also the same day, Alok Sharma attended a fundraising dinner in Reading West, which was also attended by Joseph Mifsud, with Boris Johnson as the guest speaker. During the event, Johnson was photographed with Mifsud and Prasenjit Kumar Singh.

On October 20, 2017, James Ball published the article “A Suspected Network Of 13,000 Twitter Bots Pumped Out Pro-Brexit Messages In The Run-Up To The EU Vote” in BuzzFeed News, which detailed the research done by City, University of London titled “The Brexit Botnet and User-Generated Hyperpartisan News”.

On October 22, 2017, a petition was created titled “We need a public inquiry into Russian State interference in Brexit”, which was subsequently rejected as a duplicate of the “Investigate covert foreign interference in the EU referendum” petition.

On October 25, 2017, Betsy Swan published the article “Trump Data Guru Alexander Nix: I Tried to Team Up With Julian Assange” in The Daily Beast.

The same day, Julian Assange tweeted: “I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks.”

Also on the same day, Dana Bash and Marshall Cohen, with contributions from Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb, published the article “Trump campaign analytics company contacted WikiLeaks about Clinton emails” in CNN.

And also on the same day, Ambassador Yakovenko published a press release where he denied Russian interference in the referendum.

Again, same day, Tom McTague and David M. Herszenhorn published the article “Juncker’s ‘monster’ haunts Britain” in Politico, which was about Martin Selmayr.

“British diplomats in Brussels have told U.K. officials, meanwhile, that Selmayr is concerned that British secret services are spying on him and resorts to hard copies of documents rather than emailed exchanges to avoid intrusion — a charge the Commission dismissed as ‘nonsense.’” — Politico

On or around October 26, 2017, Prime Minister May considered hiring Matthew Elliott at Conservative Campaign Headquarters.

On October 29, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Trump, Assange, Bannon, Farage… bound together in an unholy alliance” in The Guardian.

In November 2017, the European Union suggested the introduction of a backstop to the Irish border to keep the border open due to a lack of a solution from the British Government.

On November 1, 2017, the Electoral Commission announced an investigation into Arron Banks and his company, Better For the Country Limited, which donated £2,359,842.76 to organisations such as Grassroots Out and the United Kingdom Independence Party.

Carole Cadwalladr tweeted: “Um. So here’s Leave.EU re-tweeting Russia Today… offering its uncritical support to Leave.EU. As it’s investigated for possible Russian ££”. The tweet was in response to Wigmore linking to the article “Claims that Russia backed Brexit are ‘bollocks’ — UKIP donor Arron Banks” in Russia Today.

On November 2, 2017, the Electoral Commission opened an investigation into Russian interference through social media in order to question Facebook and Twitter.

On November 4, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr and Michael Savage published the article “Boris Johnson in spotlight as questions raised over Russian influence on UK” in The Guardian, which discussed meetings between George Papadopoulous and Joseph Mifsud (separately) with Alok Sharma, Tobias Ellwood and Boris Johnson. Tom Watson, Ben Bradshaw and Tom Brake were the Members of Parliament who questioned these meetings.

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Brexit, the ministers, the professor and the spy: how Russia pulls strings in UK” in The Guardian, which attempted to paint Matthew Elliott’s relationship with Sergey Nalobin at the Conservative Friends of Russia as part of Russia’s influence over Brexit, and included a quote from Bill Browder.

“‘The entire city is a nest of spies,’ a British intelligence source told the Observer this year. ‘There’s more espionage activity here now than there was even at the height of the cold war.’” — The Guardian

“Did Johnson know of Elliott’s connections to a Russian operative? Probably — because he also knew Nalobin. They are photographed at Russian embassy events together. Did the British intelligence services? An intelligence source told the Observer of ‘enormous sensitivity’ around any investigation of politicians. And Elliott was not an MP, but in 2016 he did hold an official position — designated by an offiical body, the Electoral Commission. Was his relationship to Nalobin flagged by security services? If so, by whom, to who? If not, why not?” — The Guardian

On November 10, 2017, Matt Burgess publsihed the article “Here’s the first evidence Russia used Twitter to influence Brexit” in Wired. The article used a cache of 2016 tweets provided by the organisation New Knowledge — although all tweets were dated after the June 24 vote.

“A network of accounts posted pro and anti-Brexit, anti-immigration and racist tweets around the EU referendum vote while also targeting posts in response to terrorist attacks across the continent. The accounts amplified their own messages to reach a greater audiecne and their impact raises questions about the full extent of Russia’s propaganda campaign.” — Wired

On November 11, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Boris Johnson met ‘London professor’ linked to FBI’s Russia investigation” in The Guardian.

On November 13, 2017, Prime Minister May delivered a speech at the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, where she called out Russia’s disinformation campaign and the efforts the British Government and NATO have taken to combat the country.

“Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that one sovereign nation has forcibly taken territory from another in Europe. Since then, Russia has fomented conflict in the Donbas, repeatedly violated the national airspace of several European countries, and mounted a sustained campaign of cyber espionage and disruption. This has included meddling in elections, and hacking the Danish Ministry of Defence and the Bundestag, among many others.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

“A Downing Street source said May was not making the intervention in response to any specific event but rather to a growing body of evidence that Russian agencies have been attempting to interfere with western politics.” — The Guardian

After November 13, 2017, the Intelligence and Security Committee opened an investigation into Russian interference.

On November 14, 2017, Tom Cheshire published the article “Fake Twitter accounts targeting EU referendum ‘co-ordinated by Russia’” in Sky News, which was based on research done by Yin Yin Lu at the Oxford Internet Institute using accounts created between March to June 2016.

“First of all the number of these tweets is important to highlight. So there’s about 400 tweets here out of 22.6 million. That is a very infinitesimal [TWE NOTE: What a great word.] fraction. So the word interference is perhaps a bit exaggerated.” — Yin Yin Lu

The same day, Robert Booth, Matthew Weaver, Alex Hern, Stacee Smith and Shaun Walker published the article “Russia used hundreds of fake accounts to tweet about Brexit, data shows” in The Guardian, which was based on research done by Laura Cram and Clare Llewellyn at the University of Edinburgh about 419 accounts which had tweeted 3,468 times — mostly after the referendum had taken place.

Also the same day, Glenn Simpson testified before the House Intelligence Committee, where he suggested that Nigel Farage had passed Julian Assange a thumb drive.

REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: “And, I mean, were you able to find any factual links between the Mercers and Assange or WikiLeaks or Farage?”
GLENN SIMPSON: “Well, I mean, the things that we heard, which, you know, I think could be sorted out by an official inquiry are that Nigel Farage made a number of trips to New York and had a number of meetings — Nigel Farage and Air Bank had a number of trips to the U.S., and that they sort of — that there’s been a misrepresentation of the length of that relationship and the extent of it. There’s — I’ve been told and have not confirmed that Nigel Farage had additional trips to the Ecuadoran Embassy than the one that’s been in the papers and that he provided data to Julian Assange.”
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: “What kind of data?”
[REDACTED]: “Time is up.”
REPRESENTATIVE ADAM SCHIFF: “Can we just get an answer to that.”
GLENN SIMPSON: “A thumb drive.”

On November 15, 2017, Alexi Mostrous, Mark Bridge and Katie Gibbons published the article “Russia used Twitter bots and trolls ‘to disrupt’ Brexit vote” in The Times, which discussed an unpublished paper by data scientists Oleksandr Talavera and Tho Pham at Swansea University and the University of California, Berkeley which identified 156,252 accounts with Russian as their language but English messages. One account marked was “Sveta1972” (which posted 92 tweets between June 20 and 24).

The same day, David D. Kirkpatrick, with contributions from Raphael Minder, published the article “Signs of Russian Meddling in Brexit Referendum” in The New York Times. The article quoted Jonathon Morgan of New Knowledge.

Also the same day, Chris McCall published the article “‘I’m not a Russian troll — I’m a security guard from Glasgow’” in The Scotsman, which said that “Smoo” from Twitter had also been incorrectly identified as a Russian online troll and propagandist by ByLine and author James Patrick.

“I’m not posting anonymously. Smoo has been my nickname since I was six years old. It’s not difficult to track me down. People might not agree with my opinions, but that doesn’t make me a Russian troll.” — Smoo

The same day, during Prime Minister’s Questions, Mary Creagh MP questioned Prime Minister May over whether Foreign Secretary Johnson was being kept in the dark by British intelligence and demanded an investigation into Russian interference.

On November 16, 2017, Georgina Lee published the article “Here’s what we know about alleged Russian involvement in Brexit” in Channel 4 News.

On November 17, 2017, Karla Adam and William Booth published the article “Rising alarm in Britain over Russian meddling in Brexit vote” in The Washington Post.

“British intelligence agencies have been gathering information on Russian active measures and disinformation campaigns before and after the Brexit referendum.” — The Washington Post

On November 19, 2017, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “My fear and fury in the eye of the Russia-Leave storm” in The Guardian.

After November 19, 2017, Cadwalladr reached out to the BBC News in an attempt to work with them over the Brexit part of her investigations, although her demands and limited access to her information led to BBC News passing on the subject.

Before November 20, 2017, Jenna Corderoy passed correspondence between the Electoral Commission and Darren Grimes to Jolyon Maugham. Unhappy with the progress of the investigation, Maugham teamed with Polly Glynn, Jessica Simor and Tom Cleaver to issue urgent judicial review proceedings.

On November 20, 2017, the Electoral Commission announced an investigation into Vote Leave and whether it had breached the £7 million spending limit during the referendum vote due to payments made to Darren Grimes and his payments to AggregateIQ.

On November 22, 2017, Jolyon Maugham published the article “Did Vote Leave commit a crime over its funding? Democracy demands to know” in The Guardian.

On November 28, 2017, the organisation Britain’s Future created their Facebook page, originally known as “Britain 2.0”.

The same day, We Are the 52% created their own Facebook page.

In late 2017, a media organisation considered an indemnity for Wylie, which Cadwalladr mentioned to The New York Times.

“A Times spokesperson initially said that the paper was not aware of the financial-backer arrangement and that had Cadwalladr helped to arrange financial backing it ‘would violate our journalism guidelines, which cover outside contributors.’ After the publication of this story the Times reviewed communications with Cadwalladr and found that, in late 2017, she had mentioned to the Times that another media outlet was considering an indemnity for Wylie. ‘However, The Times did not know that Mr. Wylie had later secured an unidentified financial backer to cover his potential legal costs,’ the spokeswoman said. She declined to say whether this arrangement would violate the Times’s guidelines. Channel 4 News said it knew of, but could not independently identify, the backer. A spokesperson for Guardian News and Media, the parent company of The Guardian and The Observer, declined to comment, saying, ‘We are not going to go into confidential discussions between editorial colleagues.’” — The Atlantic

Before December 2017, Chuka Ummuna started to chair weekly Wednesday meetings at Milbank Tower, known as the “Grassroots Coordinating Group”, where he met with 15 individuals, which controlled a pro-EU alliance in an attempt to initiate a second referendum on Brexit, which branched into thousands of campaigners across the country to mass co-ordinate a campaign of e-mails and visits to Members of Parliament to defeat Prime Minister May’s December vote. Best For Britain and Open Britain were represented in the meetings, as were Healthier In and Scientists For EU. Hugo Dixon’s InFacts may have also been represented. Training events were also hosted, known as Barnstorms.

“Early every Wednesday morning, 15 people leave their homes and travel separately to a secret location in central London, where, over cups of filter coffee and plates of cookies, they plot to stop Brexit. Those who gather, bleary-eyed, in the meting room are a mix of women and men, old and young. They include politicians and activists, both professional and little-known, though their identities haven’t been formally released. The one thing that unites them is opposition to Theresa May’s plan for Britain to make a clean break from the European Union.” — Bloomberg

At some stage, 6 of the 10 groups which sent representatives to the Grassroots Coordinating Group meetings moved into offices at Milbank Tower, which itself was 10 minutes away from Parliament.

In December 2017, Prime Minister May, Secretary David Davis, President Juncker and Michel Barnier met at the European Commission in Brussels.

Also in December 2017, Robbins was replaced as Permanent Secretary at the Department For Exiting the EU.

Also in the same month, the British Government accepted the European Union’s proposal for an Irish border backstop.

Also, again, in the same month, prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team interviewed two executives at Cambridge Analytica in Washington, DC.

On December 13, 2017, James Titcomb published the article “Facebook: Russians spent just 73p on adverts during Brexit campaign” in The Telegraph.

The same day, Nadine Dorries MP tweeted: “Tonight, the Tory rebels have put a spring in Labours step, given them a taste of winning, guaranteed the party a weekend of bad press, undermined the PM and devalued her impact in Brussels. They should be deselected and never allowed to stand as a Tory MP, ever again.”

On December 17, 2017, Mark Malloch-Brown revealed his role within Best For Britain.

On December 21, 2017, Banks and Wigmore sent a bottle of Russian vodka to Jim Waterson at BuzzFeed News.

On December 22, 2017, Foreign Secretary Johnson met with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, where Foreign Secretary Johnson said that Russian interference had not been successful.

On December 28, 2017, Nico Hines published the article “Meet ‘Posh George’: The Shady Money Man Tangled Up With Brexit, Russia and Trump” in The Daily Beast.

At the end of 2017, Oakeshott discovered Banks’ visits to Ambassador Yakovenko in his e-mails while working on her book with Lord Ashcroft titled “White Flag?”, of which she had access to 40,000.

In 2018, Alexandra Hall Hall was hired as Brexit Counsellor at the British Embassy in Washington, DC.

“As UK Brexit Counsellor, Hall Hall was tasked with explaining Britain’s approach to leaving the European Union to US lawmakers and policy makers on Capitol Hill and in the White House. She suggested that her diplomatic role — intended to be politically neutral — was co-opted to deliver messages that were ‘neither fully honest nor politically impartial.’ Hall Hall said that she had filed a formal complaint about being asked to convey overtly partisan language on Brexit in Washington.” — CNN

The same year, Christopher Wylie was robbed in a New York hotel by two men from New Jersey in masks, where they took his phone and laptop but not the $1,000.00 he had in cash. The incident was reported to the New York Police Department.

In January 2018, an assessment prepared by Whitehall officials for the Department For Exiting the European Union was published internally titled “EU Exit Analysis — Cross Whiteball Briefing”, which contained three potential Brexit scenarios.

The same month, Carole Cadwalladr first met with Christopher Wylie, but not in person, and before he dyed his hair pink while he resided in Canada.

On January 4, 2018, Tony Blair published the article “Tony Blair: Brexit: What We Know Now” on the Tony Blair Instutute For Global Change website.

On January 9, 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein published the testimony of Glenn Simpson made on November 14, 2017 to the House Intelligence Committee.

On January 10, 2018, the Democratic Party on the Committee On Foreign Relations at the United States Senate published the report “Putin’s Asymmetric Assault On Democracy In Russia And Europe: Implications For U.S. National Security”.

“The June 2016 referendum in which British voters opted for their country to leave the EU, famously dubbed ‘‘Brexit,’’ was a watershed moment for Western countries grappling with a resurgent wave of populism and nationalism in their political systems. Headlines the morning after the vote reflected the world’s — and many Britons’ — shock. The Washington Post assessed it in stark terms: ‘‘British voters have defied the will of their leaders, foreign allies and much of the political establishment by opting to rupture this country’s primary connection to Europe in a stunning result that will radiate economic and political uncertainty across the globe.’’ 651 What was missing, however, in the morning-after news roundup was discussion of the Russian government and what role it may have played in helping to influence British voters’ decisions.” — “Putin’s Asymmetric Assault On Democracy In Russia And Europe: Implications For U.S. National Security”

On January 15, 2018, Chuku Umunna, Anna Soubry, Dominic Grieve and others met with Michel Barnier in Brussels.

On January 16, 2018, Caroline Lucas published the article “The three-sage plan to stop Brexit” in Politics.

On January 19, 2018, Farage dismissed Simpson’s claims of a thumb drive being passed from himself to Assange as a conspiracy theory.

On January 23, 2018, Nicholas Watt published the article “Is Olly Robbins the ‘real’ Brexit secretary?” in BBC News.

On January 25, 2018, President Trump tweeted: “Great bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Theresa May of the United Kingdom, affirming the special relationship and our commitment to work together on key national security challenges and economic opportunities. #WEF18”

On January 27, 2018, Alex Spence published the article “Here’s A Leaked WhatsApp Chat Showing Tory Leavers’ Confusion About One Of Their Key Brexit Demands” in BuzzFeed News, which featured messages between Nadine Dorries MP and Kemi Badenoch MP on October 10, 2017.

On January 29, 2018, Sam Coates published the article “Brexiteers unite to discredit Hammond” in The Times.

The same day, Alberto Nardelli published the article “This Leaked Government Brexit Analysis Says The UK Will Be Worst Off In Every Scenario” in BuzzFeed News, which was about the assessment “EU Exit Analysis — Cross Whitehall Briefing”.

Between January 29 — February 4, 2018, the Whitehall assessment “EU Exit Analysis — Cross Whitehall Briefing” was presented to ministers in one-on-one meetings.

On January 31, 2018, Gordon Corera published the article “What does Brexit mean for Britain’s spies?” in BBC News.

“Because Britain is a net giver rather than receiver of intelligence, particularly in MI5’s counter-terrorism experience and GCHQ’s extensive collection of communications and cyber activity, there was discussion in government early last year about using what some called the ‘security surplus’ as a bargaining chip in negotiations.” — BBC News

In February 2018, George Soros donated £400,000.00 to Best For Britain.

On February 1, 2018, Adam Forrest published the article “This Man Shouts ‘Stop Brexit’ at Parliament Every Single Day” in Vice, which was an article about Steve Bray.

The same day, Chuka Ummuna created the Grassroots Coordinating Group, with members including Anna Soubry, Caroline Lucas and Jo Swinson, pulling together various groups in order to represent 500,000 people. The organisation received active support from The Independent.

“They have met informally in recent months and lobbied MPs before the Commons defied the Government in December by giving Parliament a ‘meaningful vote’ on the exit deal. They will now try to persuade the Labour opposition to take a tougher stance against Ms May’s proposals and will urge the 25 pro-EU Conservative MPs to block a hard Brexit.” — The Independent

On February 3, 2018, Jacob Rees-Mogg said during an interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Today” that the Treasury Department had deliberately created anti-Brexit economic models.

On February 7, 2018, a cabinet subcommittee held a discussion about the assessment “EU Exit Analysis — Cross Whitehall Briefing”.

On February 8, 2018, Dorian Lynskey met with Mark Malloch-Brown in London.

Nick Timothy, Kate McCann, Claire Newell and Luke Heighton published the article “George Soros, the man who ‘broke the Bank of England’, backing secret plot to thwart Brexit” in The Telegraph.

“The campaign is trying to recruit major Tory donors in an attempt to undermine Theresa May.
It also plans to target MPs and convince them to vote against the final Brexit deal to trigger another referendum or general election, according to a strategy document leaked from a meeting of the group.” — The Telegraph

The same day, Jessica Elgot published the article “What is Best for Britain — and is there a ‘secret plot’ to thwart Brexit?” in The Guardian.

On February 10, 2018, George Soros wrote an article in The Mail On Sunday, where he defended his donations to Best For Britain.

On February 11, 2018, George Soros pledged to donate another £100,000.00 to Best For Britain, where it was also stated that Open Society Foundations had donated £182,000.00 to European Movement UK, £35,000.00 to Scientists For EU and £86,000.00 to Bright Blue.

Between February 12–18, 2018, Simon Milner at Facebook testified before a select committee about fake news and Cambridge Analytica.

CHRISTIAN MATHESON MP: “Have you ever passed any user information over to Cambridge Analytica or any of its associated companies?”
SIMON MILNER: “No.”
CHRISTIAN MATHESON MP: “But they do hold a large chunk of Facebook’s user data, don’t they?”
SIMON MILNER: “No. They may have lots of data, but it will not be Facebook user data. It may be data about people who are on Facebook that they have gathered themselves, but it is not data that we have provided.”

On February 13, 2018, June Sarpong published the article “Let’s put our differences aside and show that Brexit is not inevitable” in The Times, which promoted the Grassroots Coordinating Group.

Between February 19–24, 2018, Nigel Farage travelled to the United States and met with Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos and President Trump over the course of three days.

On February 21, 2018, Robert Mackey published the article “Failed Attempt to Smear Jeremy Corbyn Reveals Waning Power of British Tabloids” in The Intercept, which was about the alleged connection between Corbyn and Jan Sarkocy.

Before February 23, 2018, the undercover investigation of Cambridge Analytica recorded by Channel 4 News was completed.

On February 23, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr’s lawyers, Irvine Thanvi Natas, sent a letter to Channel 4 News reporters and editors to hand sources and transcripts over to them in relation to Cambridge Analytica and the uncover investigations, and that Cadwalladr sought injunctive relief.

On February 24, 2018, Ben Riley-Smith published the article “Cigars, selfies and drinks till 2am: Nigel Farage’s meet-up with Team Trump revealed” in The Telegraph.

Between February 26 — March 2, 2018, Tony Blair visited Brussels in an attempt to stop Brexit.

On February 27, 2018, Alexander Nix testified before the fake news parliamentary committee.

REBECCA POW MP: “Does any of the data come from Facebook?”
ALEXANDER NIX: “We do not work with Facebook data and we do not have Facebook data.”
[…]
ALEXANDER NIX: “We have never worked with a Russian organisation in Russia or any other company. We do not have any relationship with Russia or Russian individuals.”

In March 2018, Cambridge Analytica removed SCL Canada and Zack Massingham’s telephone number from their website.

The same month, eight Remainer organisations with representatives in the Grassroots Coordinating Group, including European Movement, InFacts, Open Britain, Britain For Europe, Scientists For EU [Rob Davidson], Healthier In the EU [Rob Davidson], Our Future Our Choice and For Our Future’s Sake, moved into the first floor at Milbank Tower to discuss strategy every Wednesday with Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry, which also included a plan for a pro-European demonstration in London on June 23, 2018. Best For Britain did not move into Milbank Tower. The New European was a member of the group, but as a newspaper, it presumably did not move into the Tower.

Also the same month, the organisation Britain’s Future had its website created.

Also in the same month, Mike Butcher founded the organisation Tech For UK, where they then worked for Best For Britain and hosted meetings in the offices of Smarkets and Knotel.

On March 2, 2018, Tony Blair was interviewed for Politico’s “EU Confidential” podcast, where he discussed his attempts to stop Brexit.

“Blair has little love for Jeremy Corbyn, his left-wing successor as Labour party leader. Corbyn’s policy of developing a bespoke customs union with the EU means the party ‘pulled up its anchro… without actually getting to the truly safe harbor’ of challenging the government’s wider Brexit strategy. He said Labour policy could still evolve to outright opposition to Brexit.” — Politico

The same day, Prime Minister May delivered a speech at Lancaster House about relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union.

In early March 2018, Wylie provided a dossier of evidence in relation to Cambridge Analytica to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Crime Agency’s Cybercrime Unit.

On March 5, 2018, Jane Mayer published the article “Christopher Steele, The Man Behind The Trump Dossier” in The New Yorker.

On March 6, 2018, Chuku Umunna MP was in the office of Barnier’s office in Brussels to discuss trade deals with the United Kingdom. Umunna MP informed Bloomberg reporters of the European Union’s intent to push for Prime Minister May to drop her red lines on the trade line.

On March 7, 2018, the European Union published its draft plan for the next phase of Brexit negotiations.

On March 12, 2018, Kate Forrester published the article “Six Pro-EU Groups Move To New Shared Office For Brexit Fightback” in The Huffington Post, which was about the Grassroots Coordinating Group moving into Millbank Tower.

On March 16, 2018, Facebook suspended Cambridge Analytica, Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL), Kogan and Wylie from their social media network.

On March 17, 2018, Christopher Wylie was interviewed by The Guardian about his involvement with Cambridge Analytica.

The same day, Channel 4 News published the first part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Whistleblower”, which was an interview with Wylie in collaboration with The Guardian.

On March 18, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “‘I made Steve Bannon’s psychological warfare tool’: meet the data war whistleblower” in The Guardian.

“When I asked Bill Browder — an Anglo-American businessman who is leading a global campaign for a Magnitsky Act to enforce sanctions against Russian individuals — what he made of it, he said: ‘Everyone in Russia is subordinate to Putin. One should be highly suspicious of any Russian company pitching anything outside its normal business activities.” — The Guardian

The same day, Matthew Garrahan and Hannah Kuchler published the article “Cambridge Analytica scrambles to halt Channel 4 exposé” in The Financial Times.

“Christopher Wylie, a former Cambridge Analytica employee, showed documents to the New York Times, The Observer and Channel 4 News, which the news outlets said detailed a programme that used data from a survey without users’ permission. Some 270,000 users had granted permission for their data to be used for research purposes, not passed to a political data analytics firm, and they may have exposed data from their friends in the process.” — The Financial Times

On March 19, 2018, Channel 4 News published the second part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Sales Pitch”, which featured an undercover investigation and Nix.

“In one exchange, when asked about digging up material on political opponents, Mr Nix said they could ‘send some girls around to the candidate’s house’, adding that Ukrainian girls ‘are very beautiful, I find that works very well’.” — Channel 4 News

The same day, Chuka Umunna attended the Should I Stay or Should I Go conference in London, where he spoke with Henry Porter about the Grassroots Coordinating Group and his moves being in opposition to Corbyn’s leadership.

On March 20, 2018, Channel 4 News published the third part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Trump Campaign”, which featured more of the undercover investigation.

The same day, Nix was suspended from the board of Cambridge Analytica.

On March 22, 2018, Shahmir Sanni and two other pro-Brexit campaigners (one of whom was Mark Gettleson, a friend of Shahmir) provided evidence of Vote Leave’s issues with the spending limit during the referendum to the Electoral Commission.

“‘She’s an activist,’ Sanni, who is still close with Cadwalladr, told me. ‘Of course, she’s a journalist whatever, but she’s both a journalist and an activist.’” — The Atlantic

On March 22, 2018, Tim Ross and Kitty Donaldson published the article “Inside the Secret Plot to Reverse Brexit” in Bloomberg, which detailed the actions of 15 people to create the need for a second referendum on the vote to leave the European Union. The weekly Wednesday meeting was chaired each time by Chuka Umunna MP, and featured Brexit rebels in Parliament and activists across the country, which “played a crucial role behind the scenes in inflicting defeat on May”.

“Early every Wednesday morning, 15 people leave their homes and travel separately to a secret location in central London, where, over cups of filter coffee and plates of cookies, they plot to stop Brexit. Those who gather, bleary-eyed, in the meting room are a mix of women and men, old and young. They include politicians and activists, both professional and little-known, though their identities haven’t been formally released. The one thing that unites them is opposition to Theresa May’s plan for Britain to make a clean break from the European Union.”
[…]
“Since the start of the year, European leaders have lined up to tell Britain that it is free to change its mind. If May — or a different prime minister — were tow rite to European Council President Donald Tusk to say Brexit is off, the EU would welcome the country back into the club without hesitation, they say. While the EU continues to take the hardest line in the negotiations, officials have made clear privately that they will agree to pause the Brexit process to allow time for a new referendum, perhaps even another election if necessary, according to Umunna. ‘If a crisis is precipitated and there were a general election, or a new national poll, we would be granted the time to do that,’ he says.”— Bloomberg

On March 24, 2018, Channel 4 News published the fifth part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Brexit Whistleblower”, which featured an interview with Shahmir Sanni, where he claimed Vote Leave had cheated.

“In an interview with Channel 4 News, Shahmir Sanni, who helped run the BeLeave offshoot campaign, said that ‘people have been lied to,’ adding: ‘I know… that Vote Leave cheated.’
He said: ‘Leaving the European Union, I agree with. But I don’t agree with losing what it means to be British in that process; losing what it means to follow the rules; losing what it means to be quite literally a functioning democracy.” — Channel 4 News

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr and Mark Townsend published the article “Revealed: the ties that bound Vote Leave’s data firm to controversial Cambridge Analytica” in The Guardian.

“On Saturday the Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham said that ‘AggregateIQ has not been especially co-operative with our investigation. We are taking further steps in that matter.’” — The Guardian

On March 25, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr and Isabel Oakeshott confronted each other during The Andrew Marr Show.

On March 26, 2018, Euro Guido published the article “Remain Campaign Used Exactly The Same Spending Tactics As Vote Leave, Only Far Worse”.

On March 27, 2018, Christopher Wylie testified before British lawmakers.

The same day, Nicholas Confessore and Matthew Rosenberg, with contributions from Carole Cadwalladr, published the article “Spy Contractor’s Idea Helped Cambridge Analytica Harvest Facebook Data” in The New York Times.

On March 28, 2018, Channel 4 News published the seventh part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Cambridge Analytica Data Still Circulating”.

The same day, Ted Malloch was interrogated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Logan Airport in Boston, MA after arriving from London about his involvement with the Trump campaign, Roger Stone and any visits made to the Ecuadorean Embassy. Malloch agreed to appear before a grand jury on April 13, 2018, and his mobile phone was confiscated.

On March 29, 2018, Channel 4 News published the sixth part of the “Data, Democracy and Dirty Tricks” investigation, titled “The Mexico Allegations”.

The same day, Dan Sabbagh published the article “Remainers marshal their troops for battle against hard Brexit” in The Guardian, which discussed the difference in tactics between Best For Britain and Open Britain.

“Anti-Brexit organisations have been attending a Wednesday morning coordination meeting chaired by Labour MP Chuka Umunna. Despite reports to the contrary, few other MPs attend.
Another key figure is Open Britain chair Roland Rudd, who runs corporate communications firm Finsbury. Until recently, Rudd had Open Britain operating out of a tiny room in his own Thameside offices off the Strand. A wider group participates in an email chain. People such as journalist and former spin doctor Alistair Campbell pitch in; one of the most active participants is said by some recipients to be philosopher and author AC Grayling.” — The Guardian

On March 30, 2018, Stephanie Kirchgaessner published the article “FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally” in The Guardian

In April 2018, a former director at Cambridge Analytica claimed that Big Data Dolphins worked with a data science team at the University of Mississippi during the referendum campaign.

“No data has been sent to Mississippi — the project hadn’t even started. We have not sent data anywhere.” — Arron Banks

The same month, Fujitsu started work on a secret plan for the British Government, titled “Drive Through Border Concept”, to keep the Irish border open through a tracking system monitoring vehicles on designated routes crossing the border via GPS and number plate recognition cameras.

On April 4, 2018, the Exiting the European Union Committee led by Hilary Benn MP published the “Future UK-EU relationship report” in an attempt to convince Prime Minister May to follow a Norway-model Brexit in the event of a failed negotiation, which essentially would keep the United Kingdom in the single market.

“The High Priests of Remain on the select committee voted through another report seeking to thwart Brexit by stealth.” — Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP

Before April 8, 2018, Corbyn met with Gordon Brown in Fife in a secret meeting where they discussed Corbyn’s potential leadership role in British Government.

On April 10, 2018, Dropbox sent an e-mail to Oakeshott and informed her that her Dropbox was accessed from an unknown public IP address, which included Banks’ e-mails.

The same day, Cadwalladr sent an e-mail to Mark Browning at ITN, where she requested a subject access request for all data held about her, including e-mails, documents and videos, and all electronic records related to her from eight journalists and editors.

On April 12, 2018, Kate McCann published the article “Bid to stop Brexit: Remainers to launch £1m campaign to keep the UK in Europe” in The Telegraph, which discussed the creation of The People’s Vote by Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry, the leaders of the Grassroots Coordinating Group.

On April 13, 2018, Ted Malloch testified before a grand jury in Washington, DC.

On April 14, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Mark Gettleson: the reluctant ‘third whistleblower’ on Vote Leave spending” in The Guardian.

On April 21, 2018, Stephen Castle published the article “Could the U.K. Vote Again on Brexit? The Prospects Are Rising” in The New York Times, which also discussed the Grassroots Coordinating Group and Andrew Adonis’ tour of the United Kingdom.

Between April 23–28, 2018, ITN and their lawyers refused Cadwalladr’s subject access request as they questioned whether The Guardian was aware of her demand.

“Every endeavour to collaborate with her and reach an amicable agreement was made throughout this process. But those endeavours ultimately proved unsuccessful. It is unfortunate that we were not able to conclude this project with Carole. We nevertheless ensured that we gave Carole and our media partners due credit in our coverage.” — Channel 4 News

On April 28, 2018, Dorian Lynskey published the article “‘It’s not a done deal’: inside the battle to stop Brexit” in The Guardian.

On April 30, 2018, Alexander Nix resigned as director of SCL Group Limited.

In May 2018, Michael Caputo was questioned by investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, where they asked him about Farage’s relationship with Trump associates.

The same month, the organisation “Britain 2.0” officially changed their name to Britain’s Future.

In early May 2018, Brian Kidd, another Justice Department prosecutor and an agent at the Federal Bureau of Investigation travelled to London and interviewed Christopher Wylie, as he had been subpoenaed by the United States Department of Justice.

On May 6, 2018, Jacob Rees-Mogg was interviewed by Kay Burley at Sky News, where he said he supported the Conservative manifesto to leave the customs union at a time of disagreement with Justine Greening MP, and said Prime Minister May would not leave office soon.

The same day, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson published the article “Boris Johnson: Don’t Scuttle the Iran Deal” in The New York Times. At the time, Foreign Secretary Johnson was in the United States to meet with Vice President Mike Pence and John Bolton.

On May 11, 2018, the Electoral Commission released the “Report on an investigation in respect of the Leave.EU Group Limited”, which led to the organisation being fined £70,000.00.

“Leave.EU paid for services from the US campaign strategy firm Goddard Gunster that should have been reported in its spending return but were not. Those services from Goddard Gunster were paid for before the regulated period started on 15 April 2016, but Leave.EU made use of them during the regulated period. Accordingly, a proportion of the cost of services from Goddard Gunster should have been included in Leave.EU’s spending return. The Commission cannot, on the available evidence, quantify the exact proportion of this spending which should have been declared.” — “Report On An Investigation In Respect of the Leave.EU Group Limited”

The same day, Nico Hines published the article “Brexit Campaign’s Use of GOP Strategist Broke Election Law” in The Daily Beast.

Before May 15, 2018, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie and Alison McGovern became members of a WhatsApp group titled “Beyond Article 50”.

On May 15, 2018, Jeremy Corbyn MP informed Labour MPs, including Hilary Benn, Wes Streeting, Chuka Umunna, Chris Leslie, Alison McGovern and John Mann, during a private meeting that the Labour Party must not consider the Norway-style Brexit, and pushed to unite Leave and Remain. Hilary Benn warned Corbyn not to take any option off the table.

The same day, Matthew Rosenberg and Nicholas Confessore, with contributions from Adam Goldman, published the article “Justice Department and F.B.I. Are Investigating Cambridge Analytica” in The New York Times, which said Brian Kidd was involved in the investigation.

“Prosecutors have questioned potential witnesses in recent weeks, telling them that there is an open investigation into Cambridge Analytica — which worked on President Trump’s election and other Republican campaigns in 2016 — and ‘associated U.S. persons’. But the prosecutors provided few other details, and the inquiry appears to be in its early stages, with investigators seeking an overview of the company and its business practices.” — The New York Times

On May 18, 2018, George Freeman MP tweeted: “We need a deal to avoid a massively damaging NoDeal. If the PM & Cabinet can’t get a bespoke deal it’s surely time to start looking at taking a deal off-the-shelf: like EEA or EFTA. The public voted 52:48 for Brexit — not for chaos & ideological economic self-harm.”

Between May 19–20, 2018, Chuka Umunna MP and Chris Leslie MP, alongside other Labour Members of Parliament, contacted the House of Lords repeatedly to push through an amendment to remain in the European Economic Area.

On May 23, 2018, Adam Payne published the article “Inside the Brexit battle to keep Britain in the single market” in Business Insider.

“At the time of writing, activists for the Open Britain campaign had sent 8,815 emails to 637 MPs urging them to back the amendment. ‘MPs have complained to us that they’re getting deluged,’ a leading activist told Business Insider. On the eve of the Lords vote, a squad of Labour MPs including Chuka Umunna and Chris Leslie spent a weekend ringing up House of Lords peers, urging them to back the amendment and breathe new life into the cause.”
[…]
“Pro-EEA MPs know they have lots of work to do to transform this recent momentum into a parliamentary victory. BI has been told that around 15 Conservative MPs are prepared to back the amendment, while at least 70 Labour MPs are ready to get on board. But even with these numbers, any vote would still fail unless the Labour leadership came on board.” — Business Insider

On May 24, 2018, Best For Britain created a GoFundMe titled “Fight For a Final Say!”.

The same day, Tech For UK published the article “UK tech leaders back Tech For UK and Best For Britain”, which featured 85 technology leaders pushing to remain in the United Kingdom.

Also the same day, John Stevens published the article “Leaked dossier reveals details of a £6m campaign backed by foreign billionaire George Soros to keep Britain in the EU” in The Daily Mail, which was based on leaked documents about a 6-month 26-page plan to stop Brexit by arguing the opposite of Prime Minister May in October 2018, sent to potential donors around May 24.

“In the next few weeks Best for Britain will start arguing the Brexit referendum was not a rejection of the EU: ‘This was a vote against London as much as Brussels.’
Over the summer, its message will focus on how Brexit is ‘putting the UK’s unity and security at risk’.
In October — when it is expected that the outline of the Prime Minister’s deal with Brussels will be known — the document reveals that the group has already decided to argue: ‘Now we can finally see the real facts, this is not what we voted for.’”
[…]
“In July, the group is planning to lobby the policy conference of Unite, the country’s largest trade union.
In August, it is organising a ‘Labour Against Brexit’ speaking tour that will see senior figures make the case for remaining in the EU.
In September, it will have a presence at both the TUC and Labour Party annual conferences.” — The Daily Mail

On May 29, 2018, Soros announced at the European Council On Foreign Relations in Paris that the manifesto for Best For Britain would be released on June 8, 2018.

“The largest donor has been Soros’s Open Society Foundation, which has provided £800,000. He will not be attending next week’s launch event, but the 87-year-old financier and philanthropist gave a speech in Paris on Tuesday in which he trailed the launch, saying that Brexit was ‘an immensely damaging process’. He added: ‘Ultimately, it’s up to the British people to decide what they want to do. It would be better, however, if they came to a decision sooner rather than later.’
[…]
The campaign group is not covered by Electoral Commission regulations, which ban foreign donors, because there is no pending national vote. However, a spokesman said the group did not take money from overseas and that Soros’s donations come via the Open Society Foundation’s UK branch, which is a company registered in England and Wales, which would mean they were permissible under election law.” — The Guardian

“Soros’s decision to fund the group, rather than the higher-profile Open Britain, appears to be down to a personal connection with Todd through the international development sector.” — The Guardian

On May 30, 2018, Martin Fletcher published the article “Inside the headquarters of Britain’s anti-Brexit brigade” in New Statesman, which was about the Grassroots Coordinating Group.

“The deepest divide has been between outsider groups such as Best For Britain that are determined to stop Brexit, and those with close parliamentary links such as Open Britain that have been fighting to mitigate it. Eloise Todd, the Yorkshirewoman who runs Best For Britain, argues that a soft Brexit would turn the UK into such a ‘vassal state’ of Brussels that a hard Brexit would inevitably follow in a few years’ time.” — New Statesman

In early June 2018, Banks’ e-mails and interactions with Ambassador Yakovenko were passed by a “whistleblower” to members of the House Intelligence Committee. The same “whistleblower” may have also passed the e-mails and interactions to the National Crime Agency and to MI5. The e-mails also reached CNN at some stage.

“His emails were passed to the National Crime Agency by a third party. Sources have told CNN the documents have also been shared with the UK’s domestic intelligence service MI5 and, in the US, with Democratic members of the House Intelligence Committee. The committee has been investigating allegations of collusion between people associated with the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election.” — CNN

On June 2, 2018, Best For Britain placed their first advertisement for a second referendum in The Scotsman.

On June 5, 2018, BBC News published the article “Who are anti-Brexit group Best for Britain?”

The same day, Aliya Ram and Cynthia O’Murchu, with contributions from Gillian Tett and Tom Hancock, published the article “Cambridge Analytica chief accused of taking $8m before collapse” in The Financial Times.

On June 6, 2018, Alexander Nix testified before British lawmakers, which was attended by Carole Cadwalladr and Christopher Wylie.

Later that day, Peter Jukes provided Carole Cadwalladr with information from inside the Leave.EU campaign, which she then reviewed.

On June 8, 2018, Best For Britain hosted a launch event and issued out their campaign manifesto, which was attended by Mark Malloch Brown.

The same day, Cadwalladr contacted Banks at 11:57 AM via e-mail for comment over Banks’ e-mails received related to their visits to Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko during the referendum campaign. Banks and Wigmore later issued a press release and declined to attend testimony to the select committee for the Department For Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

In the evening, Oakeshott contacted Cadwalladr and accused The Guardian of hacking and stealing her archive of Banks’ e-mails.

On June 9, 2018, Oakeshott and The Guardian entered discussions to delay the release of the Banks’ e-mail story. At the same time, The Sunday Times were in the process of publishing the same story, having been informed by Oakeshott.

The same day, Andy Wigmore tweeted to Damian Collins: “Fill your boots DamianCollins and all from #hacked emails, surely not legal? and passed to @carolecadwalla your favourite journalist — See you on Tuesday — Arron_banks.”

The same day, Damian Collins tweeted: “Something’s clearly up. Arron_banks and andywigmore now say they do want to give evidence to CommonsCMS on Tuesday because of story that’s about to come out about some emails — which I don’t have a copy of btw. Must be significant, to make them change their minds again”.

In the evening, Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes published the article “Arron Banks ‘met Russian officials multiple times before Brexit vote’” in The Guardian.

The same day, Banks said he would testify before the Department For Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and accused Damian Collins MP of working with journalists.

On June 10, 2018, Nico Hines published the article “How a Journalist Kept Russia’s Secret Links to Brexit Under Wraps” in The Daily Beast.

The same day, Richard Kerbaj, Caroline Wheeler, Tim Shipman and Tom Harper published the article “Revealed: Brexit backer Arron Banks’s golden Kremlin connection” in The Sunday Times.

The same day, Isabel Oakeshott published the article “A classic Russian fishing expedition lands back channel to White House” in The Sunday Times.

“Today’s revelations are the result of an investigation that I was carrying out with Lord Ashcroft for a book we are writing together about the state of the British armed forces. Unfortunately, limited material was hacked and passed to third parties. So I have decided to talk to The Sunday Times.” — Isabel Oakeshott

The same day, Damian Collins MP pushed for Banks to explain his contacts with Ambassador Yakovenko.

“It wasn’t just the Russians: we met all sorts of nationalities, we also briefed the State Department in Washington, we also met with top embassy officials in London. So if we are Russian spies we must be American spies too.” — Arron Banks to Reuters

The same day, Isabel Oakeshott tweeted: “To those casting doubt on whether my computer was hacked, here’s the proof. It was fully investigated”.

Also the same day, Cadwalladr contacted LBC Radio in an attempt to speak with Nigel Farage on his show, with leading questions about Arron Banks and the Russian Government, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

On June 11, 2018, Arron Banks published the article “The target of these nonsense Russian allegations isn’t me — it’s the vote to leave the EU” in The Telegraph.

The same day, Jim Waterson published the article “Profile: Isabel Oakeshott and The Bad Boys of Brexit” in The Guardian.

The same day, Cadwalladr contacted Farage during his LBC Radio phone-in show, where he proceeded to hang up on her live while Wigmore and Banks were on his show.

“I don’t want to talk to Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian!” — Nigel Farage

On June 12, 2018, Banks and Wigmore testified before the select committee for the Department For Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, which they left partway through to meet with two members of the DUP, Ian Paisley and Sammy Wilson.

On June 16, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes published the article “Leave.EU faces new questions over contacts with Russia” in The Guardian.

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Arron Banks, Brexit and the Russia connection” in The Guardian.

On June 23, 2018, tens of thousands of people marched in central London to push for a second referendum, having been organised by People’s Vote and Open Britain, which was addressed to by Gina Miller, Sir Vince Cable and Caroline Lucas. At the same time, a counter-protest was held by pro-Brexit factions.

Between June 25–29, 2018, a number of Banks’ e-mails were read to The New York Times.

“Some of his emails were first leaked earlier this month to the British press. But the broader record of his messages, described this week to The New York Times by several people who had read them, revealed the new disclosures about Mr. Banks’s more extensive Russian business dealings.” — The New York Times

Between June 25 — July 1, 2018, officials from the United States Government visited London to arrange plans for President Trump and First Lady Trump’s incoming visit.

On June 27, 2018, Tony Blair spoke at Chatham House in London in a speech titled “In Defence of Globalisation”, where he said that President Trump should support the European Union. (TWE NOTE: Event was not a comedy.)

On June 28, 2018, Manuel Roig-Franzia, Rosalind S. Helderman, William Booth and Tom Hamburger, with contributions from Craig Timberg, Alice Crites, Josh Dawsey and Julie Tate, published the article “How the ‘Bad Boys of Brexit’ forged ties with Russia and the Trump campaign — and came under investigators’ scrutiny” in The Washington Post.

Before June 29, 2018, Banks’ communications were obtained by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team.

On June 29, 2018, David D. Kirkpatrick and Matthew Rosenberg published the article “Russians Offered Business Deals to Brexit’s Biggest Backer” in The New York Times.

“From what we’ve seen, the parallels between the Russian intervention in Brexit and the Russian intervention in the Trump campaign appear to be extraordinary. The Russians were apparently dangling gold mines and diamond mines and financial incentives behind one of the largest backers of Brexit.” — Representative Adam Schiff

The same day, Chancellor Merkel announced that Prime Minister May would visit Berlin in July 2018.

In July 2018, Edward Lucas and Chris Donnelly provided testimony for 2 hours and 45 minutes to the Intelligence and Security Committee about Russian influence in the United Kingdom through the use of lobbyists.

“Journalist and Russia expert Edward Lucas, who was among the first to contribute to the ISC inquiry in July 2018, told CNN his testimony to the committee centered on the role of lobbyists who were advocating in the UK on behalf of Russian clients with dubious sources of wealth.” — CNN

To note, the members of the Intelligence and Security Committee:

• Dominic Grieve — Conservative Party — Remain — Chair
• Richard Benyon — Conservative Party — Remain
• Ian Blackford — Scottish National Party — Remain (until April 2019)
• Caroline Flint — Labour Party — Remain
• David Hanson — Labour Party — Remain
• Stewart Hosie — Scottish National Party — Remain (after April 2019)
• Lord Robin Janvrin — Former Royal Family Employee — Unknown
• Kevan Jones — Labour Party — Remain
• The Marquees of Lothian, Michael Ancram — Unknown — Leave
• Keith Simpson — Conservative Party — Remain

The same month, senior figures within 10 Downing Street had started to warn that Prime Minister May’s Brexit deal was unsustainable.

On July 1, 2018, Tom Harper and Caroline Wheeler published the article “National Crime Agency examines Russian link to Arron Banks” in The Sunday Times, which detailed that the National Crime Agency had received and were investigating a cache of Banks’ e-mails and other documents in relation to his meetings with Ambassador Yakovenko, and the potential mining deals.

On July 2, 2018, Patrick Maguire published the article “For all the Brexiteers’ bluster, there’s only one man in charge of Brexit” in New Statesman, which was about Olly Robbins.

On or around July 3, 2018, 10 Downing Street issued an itinerary that stated that Farage must not meet with President Trump during his scheduled visit on July 13, 2018.

On July 3, 2018, Christopher Hope published the article “‘Donald Trump must not meet Nigel Farage’: Downing St accused of laying down red line ahead of UK visit” in The Telegraph.

Before July 4, 2018, Stephen Kinnock MP sent a letter to London Metropolitan Police and pushed for an investigation into Banks’ campaign funds and Russian interference in the referendum, but London Metropolitan Police declined due to a lack of referrals from the Electoral Commission.

On July 4, 2018, Nina dos Santos and Tim Lister published the article “UK investigates alleged Russian links to Brexit campaign” in CNN, which detailed the National Crime Agency opening an investigation into Banks.

“Some opposition lawmakers in the UK want a broader investigation. Stephen Kinnock, a Labour MP who campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU, told CNN: ‘We need a full-spectrum probe, probably involving MI5 and MI6 given the international dimensions of this.’ MI6 is Britain’s foreign intelligence service.” — CNN

The same day, Kate McCann, Gordon Rayner and Steven Swinford published the article “Brexit ‘third way’ is unworkable, says David Davis in last-ditch letter to Theresa May ahead of crunch talks” in The Telegraph.

On July 5, 2018, Brexit negotiations occurred at the European Union, where sensitive documents — a secret presentation — were received by the United Kingdom within hours after being presented at the meeting.

The same day, Prime Minister May and Chancellor Angela Merkel met with each other in Berlin about Brexit and the Chequers discussions with the May Cabinet.

In the evening, Boris Johnson, David Davis, Michael Gove, Liam Fox and Esther McVey held talks.

On July 6, 2018, Prime Minister May hosted an event with her Cabinet at Chequers, where she later delivered her remarks and said that the Cabinet was agreed on the collective position of the British Government for further European Union negotiations. The event was attended by David Davis, who objected during the meeting.

“Then came May’s Chequers proposal, in July 2018. For May, the proposal — named after the prime minister’s country retreat — was a huge climbdown. It envisioned the whole of the U.K. remaining, to all intents and purposes, in the EU’s single market for goods.” — Politico

On July 8, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes published the article “Revealed: Leave.EU campaign met Russian officials as many as 11 times” in The Guardian.

On July 9, 2018, David Davis resigned from his position at the British Government. Soon after, Boris Johnson resigned as Foreign Secretary.

On July 11, 2018, Farage and Bannon met with each other to discuss the rising European populist movement.

On July 12, 2018, the British Government published the white paper: “The Future Relationship Between the United Kingdom and the European Union”, which Jacob Rees-Mogg referred to as turning the United Kingdom into a vassal state.

The same day, President Trump was interviewed by Tom Newton Dunn at The Sun in the White House.

The same day, during a meeting of the European Council with the leaders of the European Union member states and Brussels officials, concerns were raised by Sabine Wayard about the secret presentation reaching the United Kingdom on July 5, 2018.

In the evening, President Trump and Prime Minister May attended a black-tie dinner at Blenheim Palace.

On July 13, 2018, Tom Newton Dunn published the article “TRUMP’S BOJO TIP — Donald Trump says Boris Johnson would be a ‘great Prime Minister’” in The Sun.

“I have a lot of respect for Boris. He obviously likes me, and says very good things about me. I was very saddened to see he was leaving government and I hope he goes back in at some point. I think he is a great representative for your country.” — President Donald Trump

The same day, Tom Newton Dunn published the article “Donald Trump told Theresa May how to do Brexit ‘but she wrecked it’ — and says the US trade deal is off” in The Sun.

“If they do a deal like that, we would be dealing with the European Union instead of dealing with the UK, so it will probably kill the deal.”
[…]
“The deal she is striking is a much — different deal than the one the people voted on. It was not the deal that was in the referendum. I have just been hearing this over the last three days. I know they have had a lot of resignations. So a lot of people don’t like it.” — President Donald Trump

The same day, President Trump and Prime Minister May visited Chequers for a bilateral meeting.

Also the same day, Farage and Bannon met with each other in the morning.

Also the same day, President Trump tweeted: “Joint Press Conference with Prime Minister Theresa May…”, which featured a video of his joint press conference with Prime Minister May. During the press conference, President Trump pushed for a trade deal with the United Kingdom post-Brexit.

“Once the Brexit process is concluded and perhaps the UK has left the EU — I don’t know what you’re going to do, but whatever you’re going to do is OK with me — just make sure you can trade with us, that’s all that matters.” — President Donald Trump

On July 13, 2018, Annie Karni published the article “Farage angling for a meeting with Trump” in Politico, which discussed an attempt to arrange a meeting between Farage and President Trump through the White House.

On July 15, 2018, Edward Malnick published the article “Theresa May’s secret ‘cloak and dagger’ plot to foil Brexit revealed by minister who quit in protest” in The Telegraph, which featured a discussion with Steve Baker.

“Steve Baker, who quit the Government along with is boss, David Davis, last Sunday, says he resigned after discovering that for months an ‘establishment elite’ had secretly been pursuing a plan for a much softer Brexit than the one on which he and Mr Davis had been working.” — The Telegraph

On July 16, 2018, Justine Greening MP published the article “Justine Greening: Give the British people the final decision on Brexit” in The Times.

On July 17, 2018, Darren Grimes was fined £20,000.00 by the Electoral Commission, alongside a referral to London Metropolitan Police. Damian Collins responded with a desire to strengthen the powers of the Electoral Commission and the Information Commissioner’s Office.

On July 19, 2018, Farage arrived in Washington, DC.

On July 21, 2018, Adam Payne and Ben Gartside published the article “A look at the tensions inside the campaign for a second Brexit referendum” in Business Insider.

“They’re working together on a ‘summer of action,’ which is set to kick off with regional events in Scotland, the Midlands, and other parts of the country, followed by rallies at Conservative and Labour party conferences this autumn, and a march through London in October.” — Business Insider

Between July 23–27, 2018, 10 Downing Street was officially confirmed as leading the Brexit negotiations, with Olly Robbins in charge.

On July 24, 2018, Michael Deacon published the article “The single word that says so much about Olly Robbins — the Brexiteers’ bête noire” in The Telegraph.

On July 25, 2018, Darren Grimes created an online fundraising campaign through CrowdJustice to cover the £20,000.00 fine given to him by the Electoral Commission, which he announced in Conservative Home in an article titled “Darren Grimes: Help me to challenge the Electoral Commission’s ruling”.

On July 27, 2018, Anne Perkins published the article “Olly Robbins: steely operator fighting on Brexit frontline” in The Guardian, which detailed Robbins’ involvement in the Edward Snowden leak scandal.

In the autumn of 2018, a member of the May Cabinet held a meeting with Gavin Barwell, where that person suggested Prime Minister May should step down for the next round of Brexit negotiations, which was decided as a last resort.

On August 8, 2018, Dominic Grieve announced that he would leave the Conservative Party in the event Boris Johnson became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

On August 9, 2018, Luke Harding published the article “Revealed: details of exclusive Russian deal offered to Arron Banks in Brexit run-up” in The Guardian, which included the “Russian gold space” 7-page slide.

On August 15, 2018, Peter Foster published the article “EU fears its Brexit talks are being bugged by British secret agents trying to obtain sensitive files” in The Telegraph.

On August 16, 2018, Tom McTague published the article “Bugging claim escalates Brexit paranoia” in Politico.

Around August 18, 2018, Julian Dunkerton, the founder of Superdry, donated £1 million to the People’s Vote campaign.

On August 24, 2018, Rees-Mogg was interviewed for BBC Newsnight, where he said Treasury Secretary Hammond was scared of World Trade Organisation rules for the United Kingdom and that the Department of the Treasury was in a Brexit panic.

On August 26, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr, Damien Collins, Caroline Orr and Jamie Bartlett attended the talk “Is Silicon Valley a Danger to Democracy?”, chaired by Catrin Nye and hosted at the Byline Fest.

In late autumn of 2018, both We Are the 52% and Britain’s Future employed separately a Tory activist to act as an editor.

In September 2018, Bill Browder provided a written statement to the Intelligence and Security Committee about Dubai-based British citizens laundering Russian monies connected to organised crime for shell companies. Browder also discussed the case of Peter Goldsmith.

“In written testimony submitted to the committee and seen by CNN, Browder alleges that Putin had used the proceeds of illegal asset seizures and money from corrupt sources to develop a ‘network’ of well-connected, influential British figures, enabling the Kremlin ‘to infiltrate UK society and to conceal the underlying Russian controllers and their agendas.’” — CNN

Browder’s evidence related to Dubai-based British citizens laundering Russian monies connected to organised crime.

The same month, at a Labour Party conference, a panel debate was hosted titled “The Cambridge Analytica Files” which featured Carole Cadwalladr, Christopher Wylie, Tom Watson MP, Sonia Sodha and Shahmir Sanni.

On September 7, 2018, Farage hosted “An Entertaining Evening With Nigel Farage” in Melbourne, Australia, which Cadwalladr attended and then proceeded to meet with Farage directly. Cadwalladr then asked him about his attempt to meet with Assange, something already previously established as having been because of LBC Radio.

CAROLE CADWALLADR: “George Soros doesn’t fund me! How could George Soros fund me?”
NIGEL FARAGE: “Well, I don’t know! You think the Russians fund me!”

On September 18, 2018, Barnier informed ministers connected to the EU27 about his thoughts on the Irish border backstop.

On September 19, 2018, a European Union summit was hosted in Salzburg, Austria, which was attended by Prime Minister May, President Tusk and President Juncker. Prime Minister May attended a dinner with European Union leaders and said that there would be no further Brexit extensions, although President Tusk and President Juncker said they differed on negotiations and the Irish border had not been resolved, and President Tusk dismissed Prime Minister May’s Chequers proposal, although President Macron was receptive to it. Prime Minister May’s advisers were at a rooftop hotel bar during the evening. During the same summit, Prime Minister May held bilateral meetings with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and President Tusk.

“[Brexit is] the choice of the British people, a choice pushed by those who predicted easy solutions… they are liars, they left the next day so they didn’t have to manage it.” — President Emmanuel Macron

On September 23, 2018, the Labour Party confirmed they would debate Brexit at the party conference the next week.

The same day, a march was held by People’s Vote supporters in Liverpool.

On September 25, 2018, the Labour Party held a debate on Brexit at the party conference.

On September 26, 2018, President Trump retweeted the White House account: “RT WhiteHouse: President Trump and Prime Minister May met for a bilateral meeting in New York”.

On October 2, 2018, Lord Michael Ashcroft and Isabel Oakeshott released the book “White Flag? — An Examination of the UK’s Defence Capability”.

On October 4, 2018, Tom Watson MP wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, where he requested an investigation into Russian interference in the referendum vote, where he cited the work of Carole Cadwalladr and the investigations of the Electoral Commission.

“It is impossible to understand how the UK can be dedicating so much time and resource to investigating infiltrating by Putin’s regime around the world and ignoring the glaring concern here at home. This is not about undermining the result of the 2016 referendum. This is about defending democracy and protecting ourselves from foreign infiltration and influence. I have called for a Mueller-style full public inquiry into Russian interference in the referendum with the power to force unwilling participants to co-operate. Does the Government oppose such an inquiry or will you grant one?” — Tom Watson MP

On October 5, 2018, Mark Di Stefano published the article “The Journalist Who Blew Open The Cambridge Analytica Scnadal Threatened To Injuct Channel 4 News And Demanded They Hand Over Their Sources” in BuzzFeed News.

On October 19, 2018, John Sawers claimed during a speech in Salisbury that the United Kingdom’s national security would be compromised in the event of the country leaving the European Union in March 2019.

The same day, Sir Nick Clegg was hired as the Head of Global Affairs at Facebook.

On October 24, 2018, Queen Elizabeth II hosted a State Visit for the King and Queen of The Netherlands.

“As we look toward a new partnership with Europe, it is our shared values and commitment to each other that are our greatest asset and demonstrate that even through change, our enduring alliance remains strong, and as innovators, traders and internationalists, we look with confidence to the future.” — Queen Elizabeth II

Between October 29 — November 4, 2018, Jerome Corsi was questioned by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team in Washington, DC, where he was asked about Nigel Farage and Ted Malloch.

On October 31, 2018, Damian Collins published the article “Arron Banks’s bullyboy tactics will not stop me pursuing the truth” in The Guardian.

In November 2018, Britain’s Future became the biggest political advertiser on Facebook.

The same month, Banks and Wigmore had a conversation and interview at 5 Hertford Street, a private members’ club, with Ed Caesar at The New Yorker.

On November 1, 2018, Banks and Elizabeth Bilney were referred to the National Crime Agency by the Electoral Commission for suspected illegal campaign funding during the referendum.

“I am pleased that the Electoral Commission has referred me to the National Crime Agency. I am confident that a full and frank investigation will finally put an end to the ludicrous allegations levelled against me and my colleagues.” — Arron Banks

“I can confirm it wouldn’t have come from Russia. I run the group of companies where the money was from, and we don’t have any transactions that are from Russia.” — Elizabeth Bilney

The same day, David Lammy MP pushed for Brexit to be put on hold due to the Banks investigation.

“We already know electoral law was broken. Now Aaron Banks is under investigation because Leave.EU stands accused of spending foreign money. Brexit must be put on hold until we know the extent of these crimes against our democracy.” — David Lammy, MP

Also the same day, Cadwalladr contacted LBC Radio again under the false identity of “Claire from Ashford, Kent”, where she spoke with Farage over the air, but her attempt to discuss referendum spending by Banks led to her being hung up on.

On November 2, 2018, Paul Thompson and Martin Robinson published the article “Offers of gold and diamond deals and sipping Stalin’s vodka with the Russian Ambassador: How Britain’s FBI will probe Arron Banks’ links to Moscow to see if Kremlin money was used to fund his £8 million Leave campaign” in The Daily Mail.

On November 3, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Threats, bullying, vindictiveness: how Arron Banks repels charges against him” in The Guardian.

On November 4, 2018, The Financial Times published the article “Arron Banks and the mystery Brexit campaign funds”.

On November 5, 2018, the organisation CyberGuerrilla — a branch of Anonymous — announced that they had obtained a number of documents connected to the Integrity Initiative project, which they then released.

On November 5, 2018, Tim Dawson informed a Twitter group of hardline Brexiteers, “Brexit Means Brexit Battalion”, that he had taken control over Britain’s Future. Dawson was also a member of the Twitter group “La Tory Resistance” (formerly named “Tory 1st Battalion”), and members of the network include Mark Wallace, Rebecca Ryan and Theodora Dickinson.

“Dawson’s political connections appear to be mainly on the Eurosceptic right of the Conservative party. He’s part of a circle of Tory activists who are highly active on social media and have campaigned fervently against Theresa May’s Brexit deal. This network of local councillors, former parliamentary candidates, and other party loyalists is closely aligned ideologically to Jacob Rees-Mogg’s ERG and has served as outriders for the Eurosceptic caucus in parliament as they’ve tried to take control of the Brexit negotiations and remove May as leader.” — BuzzFeed News

On November 6, 2018, BBC News published alleged notes of the British Government’s plan for selling the Brexit deal to both the public and the Houses of Parliament, although the British Government disputed the notes.

The same day, James Randerson published the article “Why a sack full of Russian cash won’t change UK Brexit debate” in Politico.

On November 8, 2018, France24 published the article “Spoof ads celebrating Russia’s Brexit ‘role’ pop up in London”.

Around November 9, 2018, Jeremy Corbyn met with Chief Alex Younger for the first time to learn about the intelligence operations of the United Kingdom.

On November 14, 2018, Tim Dawson published the article “Enough Dithering, it’s Time to Deliver Brexit” in Britain’s Future.

On November 15, 2018, Jacob Rees-Mogg sent a letter to Graham Brady and the 1922 Committee, expressing no confidence in Prime Minister May’s leadership abilities.

The same day, Tech For UK sent a letter with 1157 signatures from technology leaders to Prime Minister May to push to remain in the European Union.

Also the same day, Dan Bloom published the article “Meet the Stop Brexit protestor who just spectacularly upstaged Jacob Rees-Mogg” in The Mirror, which was about Steve Bray.

On November 16, 2018, Hannah Al-Othman published the article “We Asked That Guy Who Keeps Shouting ‘Stop Brexit’ Outside Parliament Five Questions” in BuzzFeed News, which featured an interview with Steve Bray.

Before November 17, 2018, Emma Briant provided e-mails between Arron Banks and Cambridge Analytica to the Committee of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

On November 17, 2018, Mark Townsend and Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Emails reveal Arron Banks’ links to Steve Bannon in quest for campaign cash” in The Guardian.

The same day, Cadwalladr and Jukes released the first episode of their podcast, “Dial M For Mueller”, titled “The Golden Lift”.

Also the same day, Jane Mayer published the article “New Evidence Emerges Of Steve Bannon And Cambridge Analytica’s Role In Brexit” in The New Yorker, which covered the same information as Townsend and Cadwalladr’s article.

On November 18, 2018, Prime Minister May was interviewed by Sophie Ridge of Sky News, where she warned Conservative Party members against her that it could lead to a Brexit delay if they follow through with the no confidence vote.

On November 18, 2018, Cadwalladr then attempted to contact Farage through LBC Radio for a fourth time, where she again assumed the false identity “Sarah from Weybridge”.

“Oh, go away. Honestly, you are a ranting lunatic.” — Nigel Farage

On November 25, 2018, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Who is the real Nigel Farage… and why won’t he answer my questions?” in The Guardian.

On November 27, 2018, Richard Allan at Facebook testified before the Department of Culture, Media, Digital and Sports.

On December 2, 2018, Steven Swinford published the article “Theresa May’s chief Brexit adviser warned her that customs backstop is ‘bad outcome’ for Britain” in The Telegraph, which detailed a letter from Olly Robbins to Prime Minister May that the Irish backstop could be permanent and that it should be averted through extending the transition period.

On December 7, 2018, Grant Rollings and Oliver Harvey published the article “The loaded, leftie elites are conspiring to steal Brexit from Brits — while pretending to represent ‘the people’” in The Sun.

On December 10, 2018, Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan announced an investigation into the British Government’s funding of the Integrity Initiative.

On December 11, 2018, a total of 48 letters had been received by the 1922 Committee, which led for the Conservative Party to hold a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister May’s leadership. Graham Brady then informed Prime Minister May at 05:00 PM that the threshold had been met.

“I will contest that vote with everything I’ve got. I have been a member of the Conservative Party for over 40 years… I stood to be leader because I believed in the Conservative vision for a better future. At this crucial moment in history, that means securing a Brexit deal that delivers on the result of the EU referendum. Through good times and bad over the last two years my passionate belief that such a deal is attainable… has not wavered.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

“Theresa May’s plan would bring down the government if carried forward. But our Party will rightly not tolerate it. Conservatives must now answer whether they wish to draw ever closer to an election under Mrs May’s leadership. In the national interest, she must go.” — Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Baker

The same day, The Financial Times published the article “May looks to Merkel to save the day on Brexit”.

On December 12, 2018, in the evening, the Conservative Party voted in favour of Prime Minister May’s leadership at 200–117 votes during a no confidence vote. Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Brandon Lewis and Sajid Javid voted in favour of Prime Minister May.

The same day, Foreign Office minister Alan Duncan denied that the British Government funding of the Integrity Initiative was used for their Twitter account, which tweeted anti-Corbyn and anti-Labour sentiments.

On December 13, 2018, Craig Murray published the article “British Security Service Infiltration, the Integrity Initiative and the Institute for Statecraft” on his website.

In mid-December 2018, We Are the 52% started to pay for advertisements through Facebook to promote Hard Brexit.

On December 17, 2018, Mohamed Elmaazi and Max Blumenthal published the article “Inside the Temple of Covert Propaganda: The Integrity Initiative and the UK’s Scandalous Information War” in The Grayzone.

On December 19, 2018, Edward Lucas tweeted: “I’ve written masses about this eg my Times column this week. I have no paid or unpaid relationship with InitIntegrity — except that they paid me one small freelance fee for republishing a piece I wrote. But I applaud their work.”

In January 2019, Steven Edginton started to investigate the Civil Service and their preparations for Brexit, including their internal thoughts about the subject.

The same month, Ben Judah spent time with Carole Cadwalladr at her apartment and started to exchange messages with her.

On January 3, 2019, Alex Wickham published the article “Theresa May’s Team Thinks She Will Lose The Looming Brexit Vote And Is Gaming What To Do Next” in BuzzFeed News.

“To win back rebel Tory MPs if the deal is defeated in the first vote, senior ministers are urging May to consider setting a date for her to step down after Britain leaves the EU in March. The hope is that would convince rebels that a new leader would be in place by the beginning of the future relationship negotiations within the EU. BuzzFeed News understands a cabinet minister first raised the idea in a meeting with May’s chief of staff Gavin Barwell towards the end of last year.” — BuzzFeed News

On January 11, 2019, Andrew MacAskill, Ben Martin and Maiya Keidan published the article “Exclusive: Leading Brexit donors say Britain will reverse decision to leave EU” in Reuters, which featured Peter Hargreaves and Crispin Odey expressing belief that the British Government would betray the referendum vote and remain in the European Union.

Between January 14–19, 2019, Dominic Grieve started to develop an amendment with Remain-supporting Labour Party members to have the House of Commons become the controllers of the Brexit negotiations.

On January 15, 2019, Prime Minister May’s Brexit deal was rejected by the House of Commons at a vote of 432–202.

On January 15, 2019, Roger Cohen published the article “Hold a Second Brexit Referendum” in The New York Times.

On January 17, 2019, Philip Lee, Heidi Allen and Sam Gyimah founded the second referendum campaign Right to Vote, which was not authorised or approved by People’s Vote.

On January 19, 2019, Chancellor Merkel met with members of the Christian Democrats at a party in Rostock, where she urged for compromise between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

The same day, Alex Wickham published the article “There’s A Secret Plan By Rebel MPs To Stop A No-Deal Brexit” in BuzzFeed News.

On January 22, 2019, Alex Wickham, with contributions from Alex Spence, published the article “The Campaign For A People’s Vote On Brexit Has Descended Into Infighting And Splits” in BuzzFeed News.

“The principal division among People’s Vote advocates is over when to begin their main push for a second referendum, a disagreement that has dominated the weekly meetings of the Grassroots Coordinating Group chaired by Labour MP Chuka Umunna for months.” — BuzzFeed News

On January 23, 2019, Kevin Collier published the article “It Looks Like Russian Hackers Are Still At It In 2019” in BuzzFeed News, which was about the Integrity Initiative’s hack by CyberGuerrilla.

On January 28, 2019, the Malthouse Compromise, drafted by Steve Baker, was formed by the British Government, with backing from Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nicky Morgan. The discussions about the Malthouse Compromise also included Stephen Hammond and Robert Buckland.

The same day, a group of 20 London technology workers, including Mike Butcher of TechCrunch, met in a boardroom as part of the organisation Tech For UK to begin plans to prevent the United Kingdom from leaving the European Union.

On January 29, 2019, the Cooper Amendment was rejected by the House of Commons.

In February 2019, Alexander Temerko spoke with Reuters.

The same month, Heidi Allen MP, while considering her potential leave of the Conservative Party, was informed by constituents about Britain’s Future’s advertisements on Facebook pushing for a campaign to have Remain Members of Parliament become Brexiteers.

On February 1, 2019, the Information Commission’s Office provided an Information Notice about Mainstream Network to Facebook Ireland Limited, to which they subsequently complied.

The same day, the Information Commissioner’s Office announced it had fined Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance £120,000.00 for breaches of electronic marketing laws.

On February 5, 2019, Tom Newton Dunn published the article “Brexit ministers to study secret hi-tech plan to that could break the Irish backstop deadlock” in The Sun, which was about Fujitsu’s “Drive Through Border Concept” plan started in April 2018.

On February 10, 2019, Tech For UK hosted a meeting which was attended by Eloise Todd where they discussed Westminster.

On February 11, 2019, Stephen Barclay, Olly Robbins and Michel Barnier met with each other at the UK Ambassador’s Residence in Brussels. The event was also attended by Angus Walker from outside, who then listened in on a conversation Robbins had at a nearby bar.

On February 12, 2019, Angus Walker published the article “Exclusive: UK chief Brexit negotiatior Olly Robbins warns MPs the choice is May’s deal or extension” in ITV News.

On February 13, 2019, The Financial Times published the article “MI6 chief in talks to extend term over Brexit fears”.

On February 14, 2019, the Committee For Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published the report “Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report”.

On February 16, 2019, a People’s Vote march was announced to take place on March 23, 2019, with support from The Independent’s Final Say campaign.

On February 18, 2019, Gian Volpicelli published the article “Inside the London tech scene’s frantic plan to stop Brexit” in Wired.

The same day, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee called for the British Government to investigate Russian influence in the Brexit referendum.

Also the same day, the Independent Group was founded by Chuka Umunna, where the organisation was headquartered over a Wetherspoons called The Unicorn.

“Umunna’s spokesperson insisted the idea he is using People’s Vote to start a new political party was ‘nonsense’, adding: ‘Those who suggest that the People’s Vote campaign is being used to launch a new political party do so because they are against cross-party working and prefer an outdated style of tribal politics.” — BuzzFeed News on January 22, 2019, one month before Chuka Umunna did exactly that

On February 21, 2019, Dan Sabbagh tweeted: “Am told Chuka Umunna has resigned as chair of the second ref ‘Grassroots Coordinating Group,’ although he will go to the Weds morning meetings w Anna Soubry, Caroline Lucas, Jo Swinson etc. Further attempt to separate People’s Vote from the Independent Group and friends.”

By February 22, 2019, the People’s Vote march scheduled for March 23, 2019 had raised a total of £250,000.00 in donations and thousands of attendees scheduled.

On February 24, 2019, Tom Metcalf and Stephanie Baker, with contributions from Samuel Dodge and Patricia Suzara, published the article “The Mysterious Finances of the Brexit Campaign’s Biggest Backer” in Bloomberg, which was about Arron Banks and estimated his net worth to be £25 million.

By the end of February 2019, the Department For Transport had 79 separate non-disclosure agreements, with 50 signed from December 2018 — February 2019 in relation to Brexit.

Before March 2019, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament accepted evidence for their “Russia” report, dedicated to an investigation into Russian interference, with both Christopher Steele and Bill Browder providing evidence, as well as MI5 and MI6. One aspects briefed about was Sergey Nalobin and the Conservative Friends of Russia.

“Witnesses whose testimony CNN is familiar with told the committee that Russian agents were targeting research roles in the House of Commons, acquiring British citizenship to funnel cash to political parties and employing public relations firms to cleanse reputations.” — CNN

In March 2019, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament completed their investigation into Russian interference and finalised a report titled “Russia”, which contained information provided by British intelligence agencies.

On March 2, 2019, Sir Graham Brady published the article “I voted against Mrs May’s deal. Now I’m ready to back it… SIR GRAHAM BRADY explains why he has changed his mind” in The Daily Mail.

On March 4, 2019, Richard Allen at Facebook sent a letter to Damian Collins about Mainstream Network.

On March 9, 2019, Alex Spence and Mark Di Stefano published the article “A Mysterious Hard Brexit Group Run By A Young Tory Writer Is Now Britain’s Biggest Spending Political Campaign On Facebook” in BuzzFeed News, which was about Tim Dawson and Britain’s Future.

On March 11, 2019, Tim Dawson registered Britain’s Future with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

On March 12, 2019, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay addressed Jacob Rees-Mogg about the Irish border backstop, where he cited Article 62 of the Vienna Convention to help push the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the event the issues surrounding the backstop were unresolved.

On March 14, 2019, William Craddick published the article “How Brexit And Integrity Initiative Exposed Britain’s Foreign Policy Plans For Europe” in Disobedient Media.

On March 15, 2019, Josh Rudolph published the article “Use Brexit delay to investigate Russian money” in the Atlantic Council.

On March 17, 2019, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Cambridge Analytica a year on: ‘a lesson in institutional failure’” in The Guardian.

On March 18, 2019, Ed Caesar published the article “The Chaotic Triumph Of Arron Banks, The ‘Bad Boy Of Brexit’” in The New Yorker.

On March 21, 2019, draft conclusions were written by the European Union to propose a Brexit delay until May 22, 2019 in the event the House of Commons accepted the divorce agreement the week after.

On March 24, 2019, Prime Minister May hosted a meeting at Chequers, where Jacob Rees-Mogg and Iain Duncan Smith — and other Conservative Members of Parliament — informed her that Brexit negotiations must continue under different conservative leadership.

On March 25, 2019, the British Government held talks with the Democratic Unionist Party about the Brexit agreement but did not accomplish their goal.

The same day, in the evening, the House of Commons voted to take control of the Brexit negotiations through a series of indicative votes at a vote of 329–302 through Oliver Letwin’s amendment.

On March 27, 2019, Tom McTague, with contributions from Paul Taylor and David Herszenhorn, published the article “How the UK lost the Brexit battle” in Politico.

The same day, Prime Minister May announced to the 1922 Committee in the House of Commons that she would resign from her position if the House of Commons supported her Brexit deal with a majority.

On March 29, 2019, Alex Wickham published the article “Theresa May Is Planning To Bring Her Brexit Deal Back Again And Threatening An Election If It Fails” in BuzzFeed News.

The same day, Dominic Grieve lost his confidence motion at the annual general meeting hosted by the Beaconsfield constituency association.

Also the same day, the Independent Group started to prepare to change their name to Change UK despite a potential legal challenge from Change.org.

On March 30, 2019, Carole Cadwalladr published the article “Mueller’s report is a warning — and Britain won’t listen” in The Guardian, where she refused to accept that the Mueller Report had exonerated Arron Banks and Nigel Farage.

“And as much as Arron Banks would like it to, we do not actually know if Mueller’s report exonerates him. And whatever Mueller might have concluded, the sources of Banks’s donation to Leave.EU are still under investigation by the National Crime Agency. And we still have no answers as to why the Russian embassy targeted him and offered him lucrative business deals in the week Leave.EU launched its campaign to take Britain out of the European Union.” — Carole Cadwalladr, The Guardian

The same day, Alex Spence and Mark Di Stefano published the article “Hard Brexit, Dark Money: Links Between These Secretive Campaigns Raise New Questions For Facebook About Political Ads” in BuzzFeed News.

In late March 2019, the “Russia” report was then processed for clearance with security services.

In April 2019, Steven Edginton was employed as Head of Digital Campaigns at the Brexit Party.

On April 2, 2019, Damian Collins said Tory activists running the campaigns Britain’s Future (Tim Dawson) and We Are the 52% (Theodora Dickinson) had peaked his interest during a debate at the House of Commons about the conduct of Dominic Cummings.

“We saw during the course of our inquiry… political campaigns like the shadowy Mainstream Network, which was advertising on Facebook seeking to get members of the public to lobby their MPs on what they should or shouldn’t do on Brexit. There are other organisations, like We Are the 52% and Britain’s Future, doing that right now. We may want to call in people like that in the future as part of investigations.” — Damian Collins MP

The same day, Alex Spence and Mark Di Stefano published the article “Two Secretive Campaigns Using Facebook To Push A Hard Brexit Are Facing Scrutiny By MPs” in BuzzFeed News, which was about Britain’s Future and We Are the 52%, and Damian Collins’ interest in their activities.

Also the same day, Prime Minister May offered to speak with Jeremy Corbyn over Brexit negotiations, which he agreed to attend.

“Tell Jeremy, this is a trap.” — A Former Senior Civil Servant

On April 3, 2019, talks between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party opened with regards to Brexit, which the first discussions attended by Andrew Fisher, Gavin Barwell and David Lidington. The talks also included Prime Minister May and Jeremy Corbyn, where Corbyn said a second referendum must be an option. The talks were ultimately led by David Lidington and Keir Starmer, although the attendees for every single meeting were Gavin Barwell, Andrew Fisher, Robbie Gibb and Seumas Milne.

“Labour’s negotiators felt there were three separate factions they had to deal with. The first was the ‘sensibles’, led by David Lidington, Barwell, Greg Clark, Philip Hammond and chief Brexit civil servant Olly Robbins.
The second was the ‘pragmatic Brexiteers’ of Michael Gove, Steve Barclay and Chief Whip Julian Smith.
The third faction was ‘outside the room’, but nevertheless a real thorn in the side of the talks: the ‘hard Brexiteers’ of Liam Fox, Andrea Leadsom and others who were clearly unhappy at any watering down of May’s opposition to a future customs union between the UK and EU.” — The Huffington Post

On April 5, 2019, Adam Parsons published the article “‘Secret’ £75m Brexit contracts facing investigation” in Sky News, which discussed British Government contracts related to Brexit. As a result, Meg Hiller MP decided to speak with the National Audit Office about the contracts.

• Boston Consulting Group — £10 million
• Bain and Company Inc. United Kingdom — £10 million
• McKinsey and Company Inc. United Kingdom — £5 million
• Accenture (UK) Limited — £5 million
• Deloitte — £10 million
• Ernst and Young — £10 million
• Mott Macdonald Limited — £5 million
• PA Consulting Services Limited — £10 million
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers — £10 million

The same day, Adam Parsons and Tom Boadle published the article “Brexit: Hundreds of gagging orders taken out by government” in Sky News.

Also the same day, Prime Minister May and Jeremy Corbyn met each other as third day of Conservative-Labour Brexit talks.

Before April 10, 2019, Eurosceptic Members of Parliament created a plan with some support from the May Cabinet to push for Prime Minister May’s ouster in the event of a Brexit extension.

On April 10, 2019, the EU27 leaders agreed to delay Brexit until October 31, 2019 during a European Council summit in Brussels, which included President Macron, Chancellor Merkel and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, although President Macron argued for an extension until June 30, 2019. The EU27 leaders also met with Prime Minister May.

On April 13, 2019, Alex Wickham published the article “Tory MPs Had A Plan To Get Rid Of Theresa May And Deliver Brexit. Now They’re Freaking Out.” in BuzzFeed News.

On April 16, 2019, Carole Cadwalladr delivered a discussion at TED2019 titled “Facebook’s role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy”.

On April 28, 2019, Guy Davies published the article “Amid Brexit uncertainty and allegations, UK lawmakers consider Mueller-like inquiry” in ABC News.

In May 2019, during the European elections, a number of Remainers requested a series of Subject Access Requests on The Brexit Party after receiving leaflets from them.

“Using Twitter’s search function, Sky News found many pro-EU accounts calling for people to file Subject Access Requests to the The Brexit Party in order to find out why they had been sent a party leaflet during the European elections.” — Sky News

The same month, Clive Cowery, the director for Best For Britain, donated £1,500.00 to Jo Swinson’s leadership campaign for the Liberal Democrats, and spent £1,117.28 on a drinks reception for Swinson.

On May 4, 2019, Prime Minister Theresa May published the article “‘My message to Corbyn: People want politicians to get Brexit over the line — so let’s do a deal’, by Prime Minister THERESA MAY” in The Daily Mail.

“The talks with Labour so far have been serious. We don’t agree with the Opposition on lots of policy issues, but on Brexit there are areas we do agree on — leaving with a good deal that protects jobs and our security and ends free movement.
But there are also differences on precisely what the UK’s future relationship with the EU should look like, so reaching an agreement will require compromise from both sides.” — Prime Minister Theresa May

Before May 5, 2019, Prime Minister May held secret discussions and planning with aides and ministers in the event a second referendum on Brexit is passed through the House of Commons.

On May 5, 2019, Tim Shipman published the article “Revealed: May’s last-ditch Brexit plan to woo Labour” in The Times, which stated that Prime Minister May was prepared to offer three concessions to the Labour Party.

On May 5, 2019, Gordon Rayner published the article “Theresa May in secret discussions on second Brexit referendum” in The Telegraph.

On May 7, 2019, another Conservative-Labour discussion about Brexit was hosted.

On May 10, 2019, Christopher Hope published the article “Former Conservative backer Jeremy Hosking revealed as £200,000 donor to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party” in The Telegraph.

On May 14, 2019, Farage was interviewed by Nick Ferrari on LBC Radio, where he confirmed that Jeremy Hoskin had donated twice to the Brexit Party.

On May 15, 2019, the British Government sent a memo to Jeremy Corbyn which blocked the option for a second referendum and open preferential votes in the House of Commons.

On May 16, 2019, another Conservative-Labour meeting about Brexit was hosted, which was attended by Barwell and Fisher.

On May 17, 2019, Joe Murphy published the article “Bombshell Brexit leak reveals Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn discussed plan to leave EU on July 31 and avoid second referendum” in The Evening Standard.

The same day, Jeremy Corbyn sent a letter to Prime Minister May to inform her that negotiations between the two had reached a conclusion.

Also the same day, Paul Waugh published the article “Inside The Secret Brexit Talks: How The Labour-Tory Negotiations Finally Collapsed” in The Huffington Post.

On May 19, 2019, Ben Riley-Smith and Robert Mendick published the article “How a former MI6 spy revealed Christopher Steele dossier details to an old friend from the world of espionage” in The Telegraph.

On May 20, 2019, Naomi Smith tweeted: “I voted for my party, the libdems today in the #EuroElections2019. I’ve never been prouder to cast a vote for them. #BollocksToBrexit #StopBrexit #StopBrexitSaveBritain”.

The same day, Gordon Brown revealed during a Labour Party rally speech in Glasgow that he had written to the Electoral Commission to investigate PayPal transactions to the Brexit Party. Ben Bradshaw backed the sentiment.

On May 24, 2019, Prime Minister May resigned from her position as leader of the Conservative Party, with her final day set as June 7, 2019.

On May 27, 2019, the Brexit Party dominated the European elections in the United Kingdom.

In June 2019, Steven Edginton’s investigation, which initiated in January 2019, led to a source reading a diplomatic cable dated June 2017 to him from Sir Kim Darroch to Sir Mark Sedwill about the Trump Administration. After a few days, Edginton contacted Isabel Oakeshott, a former colleague.

“After all, the Foreign Office, fully aware of the contents of the story ahead of its publication, had breezily brushed off the leak, saying in a statement that its Washington team’s strong relations with the White House ‘will withstand such mischievous behaviour’.” — The Daily Mail

On June 10, 2019, Sir Darroch sent a diplomatic cable about Brexit and the issues surrounding it.

On June 13, 2019, Change UK applied to the Electoral Commission to change their name to the Independent Group For Change.

On June 17, 2019, Sir Darroch wrote a diplomatic cable to Prime Minister Theresa May and other British Government officials about President Trump’s state visit to Queen Elizabeth II, where he mentioned that the United States was still America First.

On June 19, 2019, Ben Bradshaw, Caroline Lucas, Tom Brake, Jenny Jones and Fiona Mactaggart applied for a judicial review against Commissioner Cressida Dick and the Metropolitan Police due to the delays in the Leave.EU and Vote Leave investigations.

On June 20, 2019, Sir Darroch wrote a diplomatic cable that President Trump could win the 2020 Presidential election, as a senior British diplomat had attended the Amway Center rally on June 18, 2019.

On June 22, 2019, Sir Darroch wrote a diplomatic cable about President Trump’s tweets surrounding Iran, where he described President Trump’s US-Iran policy as incoherent and chaotic.

On June 24, 2019, Sir Nick Clegg was interviewed by BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme, where he said that there was zero evidence Russia used Facebook to influence the Brexit referendum.

“Look, I’m… I’m someone who was debating Nigel Farage before Facebook was invented. And much though I understand why people want to sort of… reduce that, that, that, that eruption in British politics to some kind of, er, plot or conspiracy or use of new social media through- through opaque means, I’m afraid the roots to British Euroscepticism go very, very deep — and candidly, over the last 40 years, have been much more influence by traditional media than they have by the new media.” — Sir Nick Clegg

On June 29, 2019, Olly Robbins prepared to resign from his position due to the incoming new Prime Minister.

On July 3, 2019, Mia Jankowicz published the article “Police say Brexit investigation ‘nearing completion’ as Remain MPs demand answers” in The New European.

On July 7, 2019, Isabel Oakeshott published the article “Britain’s man in the US says Trump is ‘inept’: Leaked secret cables from ambassador say the President is ‘uniquely dysfunctional and his career could end in disgrace’” in The Daily Mail.

“Mystery surrounds who leaked the ‘bombshell’ memos and why, prompting the Foreign Office to launch a formal inquiry. But it is understood the source of the leak — either a senior minister or official — did so to highlight their frustration at the failure of the civil service to push Brexit.” — The Telegraph

The same day, Carole Cadwalladr tweeted: “This Isabel Oakeshott story about the British ambassador bad-mouthing Trump & his links to ‘dodgy Russians’? Please bear in mind that she is *literally* paid by Lord Ashcroft who is *literally* now in Russian waters… where has this info come from? And who does it benefit?”

On July 8, 2019, 10 Downing Street expressed support for Sir Kim Darroch in his position as British Ambassador to the United States.

The same day, President Trump tweeted twice: “I have been very critical about the way the U.K. and Prime Minister Theresa May handled Brexit. What a mess she and her representatives have created. I told her how it should be done, but she decided to go another way. I do not know the Ambassador, but he is not liked or well…” “… thought of within the U.S. We will no longer deal with him. The good news for the wonderful United Kingdom is that they will soon have a new Prime Minister. While I thoroughly enjoyed the magnificent State Visit last month, it was the Queen who I was most impressed with!”

On July 9, 2019, President Trump tweeted three times: “The wacky Ambassador that the U.K. foisted upon the United States is not someone we are thrilled with, a very stupid guy. He should speak to his country, and Prime Minister May, about their failed Brexit negotiation, and not be upset with my criticism of how badly it was…” “… handled. I told theresa_may how to do that deal, but she went her own foolish way-was unable to get it done. A disaster! I don’t know the Ambassador but have been told he is a pompous fool. Tell him the USA now has the best Economy & Military anywhere in the World, by far…” “… and they are both only getting bigger, better and stronger… Thank you, Mr. President!”

On July 10, 2019, Sir Darroch resigned from his position as Ambassador after sending a letter to Sir Simon McDonald.

On July 12, 2019, Scotland Yard launched a criminal investigation into the leaks of Sir Kim Darroch’s June 2017 diplomatic cable.

On July 17, 2019, Boris Johnson ruled out a potential alliance with Nigel Farage.

On July 19, 2019, Darren Grimes won his appeal against the Electoral Commission over the £20,000.00 fine.

On the same day, Catherine Belton published the article “In British PM race, a former Russian tycoon quietly wields influence” in Reuters, which was about Alexander Temerko.

On July 20, 2019, Steven Edington published the article “Why I helped expose ambassador’s embarrassing cables: Journalist, 19, behind Trump scoop comes forward to reveal his motivation and fears he’s being targeted by security services” in The Daily Mail.

On July 23, 2019, Boris Johnson won the leadership race to become the leader of the Conservative Party and subsequently the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The same day, President Donald Trump tweeted: “Congratulations to Boris Johnson on becoming the new Prime Minister of the United kingdom. He will be great!”

On July 25, 2019, Netflix started to release the documentary about Cambridge Analytica which featured Cadwalladr titled “The Great Hack”.

On August 2, 2019, Carole Cadwalladr tweeted: “Arron Banks cannot win. Journalists cannot be bullied. We must & will fight back. I’m launching this today because we urgently need more journalism not less. The fight back starts here”. This connected to a fundraiser created by Cadwalladr and Kerry Shaw on behalf of We The Citizens Ltd. titled “Democracy: The Fight Back” on GoFundMe.

The same day, Operation Yellowhammer had prepared the “HMG Reasonable Worst Case Planning Assumptions” as an official sensitive document.

Between August 12–18, 2019, Jeremy Corbyn had correspondence with Ian Blackford, Jo Swinson, Liz Saville Roberts, Caroline Lucas and Anna Soubry to try and prevent No Deal Brexit and to vote on no confidence in the British Government during autumn and allow for Corbyn to become a temporary Prime Minister, something which Swinson rejected, instead opting for Ken Clarke or Harriet Harman.

On August 12, 2019, Prime Minister Johnson and 10 Downing Street planned for British diplomats in Brussels to stop attending day-to-day meetings with the European Union’s working group, which later received complaints from MI6.

After August 12, 2019, Tom Tugendhat MP sent a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to question the purpose of removing British diplomats from European Union meetings.

On August 18, 2019, Rosamund Urwin and Caroline Wheeler published the article “Operation Chaos: Whitehall’s secret no-deal Brexit preparations leaked” in The Times, which was about the Operation Yellowhammer documents from August 2, 2019. This was done in combination with the article “No-deal Brexit preparations: the leaked Operation Yellowhammer document”.

On August 19, 2019, President Trump tweeted: “Great discussion with Prime Minister BorisJohnson today. We talked about Brexit and how we can move rapidly on a US-UK free trade deal. I look forward to meeting with Boris this weekend, at the G7, in France!”

On August 23, 2019, Jeremy Corbyn sent a letter to Ian Blackford, Jo Swinson, Liz Saville Roberts, Caroline Lucas and Anna Soubry to arrange a meeting for August 27 to prevent No Deal Brexit, with Guto Bebb, Dominic Grieve, Sir Oliver Letwin, Caroline Spelman and Nick Boles invited as well.

Before August 24, 2019, MI6 ordered for increased activity in their stations based in Brussels, Berlin and Paris focused on the European Union.

On August 24, 2019, President Trump retweeted Dan Scavino, Jr.: “President realDonaldTrump and Prime Minister BorisJohnson catching up with each other tonight in France! #G7Biarritz https…”

The same day, Glen Owen published the article “MI6 orders more spies into the EU to help with Brexit as workers’ leave is cancelled from September” in The Daily Mail.

On August 25, 2019, President Trump tweeted: “Great working breakfast this morning with Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz, France! #G7Biarritz”.

On August 28, 2019, President Trump tweeted: “Would be very hard for Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, to seek a no-confidence vote against New Prime Minister Boris Johnson, especially in light of the fact that Boris is exactly what the U.K. has been looking for, & will prove to be ‘a great one!’ Love U.K.”

On August 30, 2019, Remain members of the Conservative Party discussed with opposition parties the potential for a caretaker Prime Minister to be installed in the event of a no confidence vote in Prime Minister Johnson, and further discussions about amending the Withdrawal Act to block No Deal Brexit.

The same day, Matt Dathan, through James Forsyth, published the article “Boris Johnson will take on Remainer Tories by sacking MPs who vote to block No Deal Brexit” in The Sun.

“The PM will treat next week’s vital Commons votes like a no-confidence vote in his Government, with rebel Tories disqualified from contesting their seats.
Former pro-Remain Cabinet ministers such as David Gauke and Philip Hammond would end their careers as Tory MPs if they back the legislation.” — The Sun

In September 2019, Clive Cowdery, director for Best For Birtain, donated £15,250.00 to Jo Swinson.

Between September to October 2019, Best For Britain conducted a seat-by-seat analysis using a poll of 46,000 British people.

Before September 3, 2019, the Conservative Party parliamentarians were warned that if they voted against Prime Minister Johnson for the snap election, their whips would be removed.

On September 3, 2019, Prime Minister Johnson’s request to call for a snap election was defeated in the House of Commons in a vote of 298–56, with a number of MPs abstaining from the vote. A number of Conservative Party members sided with the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties to defeat Prime Minister Johnson, which included:

• Guto Bebb, Richard Benyon, Steve Brine, Alistair Burt, Greg Clark, Ken Clarke, David Gauke, Justine Greening, Dominic Grieve, Sam Gyimah, Philip Hammond, Stephen Hammond, Richard Harrington, Margot James, Sir Oliver Letwin, Anne Milton, Caroline Nokes, Antoinette Sandbach, Sir Nicholas Soames, Dame Caroline Spelman, Rory Stewart, Ed Vaizey

On September 4, 2019, the House of Commons voted to block No Deal Brexit and to extend Brexit until January 31, 2020.

“The country must now decide whether the Leader of the Opposition or I goes to the negotiations in Brussels on October 17 to sort this out. Everybody will know that if the right honourable gentleman were to go there… he would beg for an extension, he would accept whatever Brussels demands. And then we would have years more dither and delay, yet more arguments over Brexit and no resolution to the uncertainty that currently bedevils this country and our economy. I don’t want an election, the public don’t want an election, the country doesn’t want an election but this house has left no other option for letting the public decide who they want as Prime Minister.” — Prime Minister Boris Johnson

In the evening, the whip was removed from the Conservative rebels who voted against the snap election on September 3, 2019, although there was debate between Conservative Party members hosted by Prime Minister Johnson over whether or not to restore their positions, with Daniel Kawczynski arguing for them to remain out of the party.

After September 4, 2019, Mark Spencer sent a letter to the 21 Members of Parliement with their whips removed that they could appeal the decision if they pledged loyalty to the British Government.

“It was one of the most self-unaware letters I’ve received in some time. From people who are serially disloyal and decimated their own minority government. I don’t want it back… all it did in my local community was confirm that the Conservative Party is now led by a narrow sect who wouldn’t be out of place in the Muppet version of the Handmaiden’s Tale. It’s like being asked by its captain if you want ot get back on the Titanic.” — One of the 21 Rebel Conservative MPs

Before September 5, 2019, Best For Britain created a petition on their website titled “Your Majesty, please keep our democracy functioning.”

Also before September 5, 2019, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson both pushed separately for meetings with Queen Elizabeth II.

On September 5, 2019, Emilio Casalicchio, with contributions from Charlie Cooper, published the article “A royal mess: How Brexit has tarnished the crown” in Politico.

On September 6, 2019, in the morning, representatives from the Labour Party, the Scottish National Party, the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru agreed during a conference call that a Brexit extension must be granted through legislation in the event no deal is reached by mid-October 2019.

On September 7, 2019, Amber Rudd announced that she was resigning both from the Boris Cabinet and from the Conservative Party, and sent a letter to Prime Minister Johnson.

“I have resigned from Cabinet and surrendered the Conservative Whip. I cannot stand by as good, loyal moderate Conservatives are expelled. I have spoken to the PM and my Association Chairman to explain. I remain committed to the One Nation values that drew me into politics.” — Amber Rudd

The same day, Tim Shipman published the article “Exclusive: Amber Rudd resigns from cabinet and quits Tories” in The Times.

On September 9, 2019, the House of Commons voted in favour of publishing the Operation Yellowhammer documents at a vote of 311–302, led by Dominic Grieve.

In the afternoon, the bill to prevent No Deal Brexit received Royal Assent.

The same day, John Bercow announced that he would step down as Speaker of the House.

On September 10, 2019, Prime Minister Johnson shut down the Houses of Parliament as part of prorogation.

“The motion, brought forward by former Tory MP Dominic Grieve, also directed Johnson to disclose messages relating to the suspension of parliament sent by his senior adviser, Dominic Cummings and various other aides on WhatsApp, Facebook, other social media and both their personal and professional phones. Grieve said he had information from public officials that such correspondence contained a ‘scandal’.” — The Guardian

On September 11, 2019, the British Government published the Operation Yellowhammer documents from August 2, 2019.

On September 12, 2019, We The Citizens Limited was incorporated by Kerry Shaw and Matthew Giles.

On September 13, 2019, London Metropolitan Police ended their criminal investigation into Leave.EU with zero charges due to a lack of evidence.

On September 14, 2019, Nigel Nelson published the article “Secret plans to make Jeremy Corbyn caretaker PM to allow second EU referendum” in The Mirror, which discussed an idea created by the Labour Party for Prime Minister Johnson to be removed in October 2019 through a ‘no confidence’ vote and replaced with Corbyn, although the plan needed the Liberal Democrats and the rebel Conservatives to succeed, although Swinson and the Conservatives disagreed.

On September 17, 2019, Michael Deacon published the article “Jo Swinson told Lib Dem conference she can stop Brexit. Here’s the flaw in her plan” in The Telegraph.

On September 19, 2019, Ben Judah published the article “Britain’s Most Polarising Journalist” in The Atlantic, which was initially titled “Britain’s Journalistic Antihero” and before that “Carole Cadwalladr Is Changing Journalism With Her Activism”.

On September 24, 2019, the National Crime Agency announced there were zero evidence of criminal offenses committed by Leave.EU, Arron Banks or Elizabeth Bilney.

On September 29, 2019, Jason Allardyce published the article “SNP in secret talks to support different Labour leader” in The Times, which discussed Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford’s conversations about initially supporting a Corbyn Cabinet to prevent No Deal Brexit, then another Cabinet lead by an alternative leader of the Labour Party, in the event the Labour Party took control.

On October 4, 2019, the European Union provided a rebuff of Prime Minister Johnson’s Brexit proposals to David Frost.

Between October 5–6, 2019, numerous phone calls took place between Prime Minister Johnson and various leaders within the European Union, including Prime Minister António Costa,where the leaders said the legal text could not be a basis for negotiation.

On October 5, 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson published the article “Pack Eur bags, deal or no Brexit deal we are walking out of the European Union in 25 days” in The Sun.

“MPs from every wing of my own Conservative party, from Northern Ireland’s DUP, even from Jeremy Corbyn’s own ranks have said that our proposed deal looks like one they can get behind.” — Prime Minister Boris Johnson

On October 6, 2019, in the morning, Prime Minister Johnson spoke with President Macron over the telephone, where President Macron suggested that the Brexit deal could be evaluated by the end of October 13, 2019.

The same day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson published the article “Listen up, Brussels! We ARE leaving in 25 days so swallow your pride, says BORIS JOHNSON” in The Express, which was the same as the article from The Sun on October 5, 2019.

On October 7, 2019, David Frost held negotiations with the European Commission. Also, Stephen Barclay met with Stef Blok.

The same day, Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin published the article “Revealed: the EU’s point-by-point rejection of Johnson’s Brexit plan” in The Guardian, which detailed papers highlighted to David Frost.

Also the same day, James Forsyth published the article “How Number 10 view the state of the negotiations” in The Spectator.

And again on the same day, Nico Hines published the article “Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower: Google Boss’ Daughter Scrubbed From Guardian Exposé” in The Daily Beast.

On October 8, 2019, in the morning, Prime Minister Johnson and Chancellor Merkel held a telephone call with each other.

The same day, President Donald Tusk tweeted: “.BorisJohnson, what’s at stake is not winning some stupid blame game. At stake is the future of Europe and the UK as well as the security and interests of our people. You don’t want a deal, you don’t want an extension, you don’t want to revoke, quo vadis?”

Also the same day, BBC News published the article “Brexit: Deal essentially impossible, No 10 source says after PM-Merkel call”.

“The No 10 source suggested Mrs Merkel told her counterpart the only way to break the deadlock was for Northern Ireland to stay in the customs union and for it to permanently accept EU single market rules on trade in goods.
This, the source said, marked a shift in Germany’s approach and made a negotiated deal ‘essentially impossible’.” — BBC News

“This blame game took shape on Tuesday, after Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Mr. Johnson by phone. One British official, speaking anonymously, faulted her for dashing any last hopes of a deal, saying she told the prime minister that disagreements over Northern Ireland could not be bridged, ‘not just now but ever.’” — The New York Times

On October 9, 2019, Peter Foster published the article “Exclusive: Philip Hammond suggests new Brexit plan as he slates ‘do or die’ pledge and questions free-trade deals” in The Telegraph.

“Mr Hammond — who argued for the UK to remain in a customs union during Theresa May’s government — accepted that his plan, if enacted, would rule out the prospect of the UK independently striking free trade deals.” — The Telegraph

On October 10, 2019, Prime Minister Johnson met with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Birkenhead, where they discussed a Brexit deal.

On October 11, 2019, Taoiseach Varadkar travelled to Brussels and met with Barnier and Stephen Barclay.

On October 13, 2019, Chancellor Merkel and President Macron made comments at the Elysée Palace in Paris before a working dinner with each other, where Chancellor Merkel referred to the United Kingdom post-Brexit as a potential competitor to the European Union.

“We will do all this in the knowledge that with the departure of Great Britain, a potential competitor will of course emerge for us. That is to say, in addition to China and the United States of America, there will be Great Britain as well. Here Europe must show what the European Union can achieve: that means we must work faster, work more consistently, and the new Commission with Ursula von der Leyen at its head should also become operational as quickly as possible.” — Chancellor Angela Merkel

Between October 14–16, 2019, Prime Minister Johnson held a face-to-face meeting with Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds each day.

On October 15, 2019, in the morning, Prime Minister Johnson had a telephone call with President Macron.

The same day, Barnier pushed for a customs border on the Irish Sea.

A late-nighter the same day was held at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels about potential Brexit deals, which included British officials. The same night, Prime Minister Johnson met with Foster and Dodds for 90 minutes.

Before October 16, 2019, 10 Downing Street considered rearranging Parliament’s focus to solely Brexit legislation, which would have gone against the Queen’s Speech.

On October 16, 2019, Emilio Casalicchio published the article “Boris Johnson’s plan to sell Brexit to the Brits” in Politico.

During the evening, Prime Minister Johnson contacted the Democratic Unionist Party via telephone.

On October 17, 2019, the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament forwarded a report titled “Russia” to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which contained information provided by intelligence agencies about Russian interference in British elections and other threats.

The same day, the Metropolitan Police sent a file to the Crown Prosecution Service with regards to Vote Leave and BeLeave to acquire investigative advice following their referral from the Electoral Commission.

The same day, Prime Minister Johnson and the European Union agreed on a new Brexit deal, titled “Revised Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland included in the Withdrawal Agreement”. The deal was disputed by the Democratic Unionist Party, as the deal would create European Union customs rules on the Irish Sea, and the Labour Party.

At the same time, Jeremy Corbyn met with European Socialists in Brussels.

On October 18, 2019, President Macron said that Brexit should stop being delayed at the European Council summit.

The same day, Prime Minister Johnson wrote an open letter in The Sun.

On October 19, 2019, MPs backed an amendment created by Oliver Letwin MP, at 322 votes to 306, to request another Brexit delay from the European Union. Steve Brine and Caroline Flint voted with Prime Minister Johnson.

“I will not negotiate a delay with the EU. And neither does the law compel me to do so. I will tell our friends and colleagues in the EU exactly what I have told everyone in the last eight days that I have served as Prime Minister: that further delay will be bad for this country, bad for the European Union and bad for democracy.” — Prime Minister Boris Johnson

The same day, Prime Minister Johnson had a telephone call with President Donald Tusk, to inform him that a letter would be sent to request an extension, which was then received by President Tusk later.

“The extension request has just arrived. I will now start consulting EU leaders on how to react. #Brexit” — President Donald Tusk

On October 22, 2019, President Donald Tusk tweeted: “Following PM BorisJohnson’s decision to pause the process of ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement, and in order to avoid a no-deal #Brexit, I will recommend the EU27 accept the UK request for an extension. For this I will propose a written procedure.”

The same day, David M. Heerszenhorn and Emma Anderson, with contributions from Rym Momtaz, published the article “EU officials convinced Brexit won’t happen on October 31” in Politico. The article noted that France was partially against the extension.

On October 27, 2019, in the afternoon, Prime Minister Johnson spoke with President Emmanuelle Macron over the telephone.

On October 28, 2019, the EU27 agreed to the Brexit extension of January 31 in 15 minutes, 2020 during a meeting of ambassadors, which followed a briefing by Michel Barnier.

Shortly after the extension was granted, the British Government closed down Operation Yellowhammer.

On October 30, 2019, Kate Proctor and Rowena Mason published the article “Tactical voting website criticised for ‘bogus’ advice” in The Guardian, which was about Best For Britain’s “GetVoting” website, as it recommended voting Liberal Democrat in areas where, previously, the party had failed to achieve the same results as either the Labour Party nor the Conservative Party.

“The only person who benefits from this bogus advice is Boris Johnson and the vested interests he protects. This false information makes Johnson’s sell-out Brexit deal more likely and its peddlers should be ashamed of themselves. A vote for the Lib Dems in almost every seat in the country helps put Johnson in Downing Street.” — Senior Labour Party Source

On October 31, 2019, Farage spoke with President Donald Trump on LBC Radio about Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn and Prime Minister Johnson.

The same day, Bill Browder tweeted: “This is disturbing. I gave evidence to the U.K. parliament’s Intelligence and Security committee about Russian operations in the U.K. with the assistance of British nationals. I was told yesterday that my testimony would be released this week as part of the report.”

On November 1, 2019, Alberto Nardelli and Alex Wickham published the article “An Intelligence Report Will Say UK Spy Agencies Found No Evidence Of Russian State Interference In The Outcome Of The Brexit Referendum” in BuzzFeed News.

The same day, Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh published the article “Trump-Russia dossier author gave evidence to UK intrusion inquiry” in The Guardian.

On November 2, 2019, BBC News published the article “Brexit: Police hand Vote Leave file to Crown Prosecution Service”.

On November 3, 2019, Naomi Smith published the article “Our tactical voting advice caused a stir, but it’s the only way to stop Brexit” in The Guardian.

The same day, Emily Thornberry MP sent a letter to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (as well as Sir Mark Sedwill, Dominic Grieve, Director General Andrew Parker and Director General Alexander Young) about Dominic Cummings’ security clearance and vetting after a “whistleblower” approached senior Labour politicians about Cummings’ relationship with Russia and Russians, specifically with Sergey Nalobin and the Conservative Friends of Russia. This was first reported by Tom Harper and Caroline Wheeler.

On November 4, 2019, 10 Downing Street announced that the “Russia” report would be delayed for publishing until after the general election rather than being published that day, and that the sign-off period for the “Russia” report was six weeks.

The same day, Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding published the article “PM accused of cover-up over report on Russian meddling in UK politics” in The Guardian, which discussed Sergey Nalobin after The Guardian conducted an investigation with the Russian news website The Insider.

“I fear it is because they realise that this report will lead to other questions about the links between Russia and Brexit and with the current leadership of the Tory party, which risks derailing their election campaign.” — Emily Thornberry MP

On November 5, 2019, Dominic Grieve accused 10 Downing Street of refusing to public the “Russia” report due to parliament not sitting.

The same day, Adam Taylor published the article “Did Russia interfere in Brexit?: An unpublished report roils U.K. politics before election” in The Washington Post.

On November 6, 2019, at 00:01 AM, the Houses of Parliament were dissolved under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, in preparation for the general election.

On November 10, 2019, Tom Harper and Caroline Wheeler published the article “Russian Tory donors named in secret report” in The Times, which stated that nine Russian businesspeople who had previously donated to the Conservative Party were named in the “Russia” report finalised in March 2019, including Alexander Temerko.

The same day, Hillary Clinton spoke at the Royal Festival Hall in London, where she argued against Brexit.

Before November 11, 2019, a testimony was given to the Intelligence and Security Committee about the “Russia” report finalised in March 2019.

“Members of the cross-party Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) were told that Moscow built up a network of friendly British diplomats, lawyers, parliamentarians and other influencers from across the political spectrum. One witness described the development as ‘potentially the most significant threat to the UK’s institutions and its ways of life,’ according to testimony seen by CNN.” — CNN

On November 11, 2019, Nina dos Santos published the article “UK inquiry was warned of Russian infiltration, leaked testimony shows” in CNN, which discussed the “Russia” report conducted by the Intelligence and Security Committee, which was finalised in March 2019.

“The contents of the ISC report, the product of an extensive investigation, have remained tighly under wraps. But CNN has been provided with written testimony from two of the committee’s witnesses, and has been briefed on oral testimony given by two others, all of whom warned that Russia had established deep ties to the UK political scence and that not enough had been done about it.” — CNN

The same day, Hillary Clinton was interviewed by The Guardian, where she accused the British Government of hiding the “Russia” report.

“Who do they think they are that they would keep information like that from the public, especially before an election? Well, I’ll tell you who they think they are. They think that they are the all-powerful strong men who should be ruling.” — Hillary Clinton

Also the same day, Mark Landler and Stephen Castle published the article “Hillary Clinton Raps Boris Johnson Over His Suppression of a Russia Report” in The New York Times, which mentioned that Bill Browder’s written statement had been received by The New York Times shortly after CNN.

On November 19, 2019, Simon Childs published the article “Revealed: The Lib Dem Links to a ‘Bogus’ Tactical Voting Site” in Vice, which revealed that the website GetVoting was ran by Best For Britain.

The same day, Rowland Manthorpe published the article “Brexit Party under investigation for ‘failing to hand over personal data’” in Sky News, which detailed an investigation opened by the Information Commissioner’s Office on The Brexit Party with a November 22 deadline to respond.

“A Brexit Party spokesperson told Sky News the majority of Subject Access Requests dated back to the European elections in May.
‘During the European elections, there was a coordinated attempt by campaigners to flood The Brexit Party with Subject Access Requests,’ the spokesperson said.”
[…]
“Using Twitter’s search function, Sky News found many pro-EU accounts calling for people to file Subject Access Requests to the The Brexit Party in order to find out why they had been sent a party leaflet during the European elections.” — Sky News

On November 22, 2019, Luke Harding published the article “UK knew in 2016 of Trump’s ‘suspicious links’ to Russia, book claims” in The Guardian.

On December 3, 2019, Alexandra Hall Hall resigned from the British Embassy in Washington, using a letter addressed to Michael Tatham which she shared widely with her colleagues and CNN.

On December 6, 2019, Eliza Mackintosh, with contributions from Luke McGee, published the article “Top British diplomat Alexandra Hall Hall quits with searing Brexit critique” in CNN, which detailed Alexandra Hall’s resignation at a time where the Foreign Office had not seen her letter.

On December 12, 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson won the general election with a large majority, with all Remainer opponents essentially removed from office.

On December 20, 2019, the Withdrawal Agreement was passed with a 124 majority vote by the House of Commons.

“Brexit is happening. An historic moment.” — Nigel Farage

The end.