Official pro-European Union campaign is part-funded by Goldman Sachs, CitiGroup and Morgan Stanley and France’s Airbus and Eurostar, Electoral Commission figures show
The campaign to keep Britain in Europe is being part-funded with hundreds of thousands of pounds foreign companies and some of America’s biggest banks, it has emerged.
Figures from the Electoral Commission show that Citigroup and Morgan Stanley donated £250,000 each to the official Britain Stronger in Europe group ahead of the June 23 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.
Two other US banks – Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan – donated £500,000 each to the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign before February when donations had to be declared.
Other donations came from France’s Airbus and Eurostar, which gave £7,500 each.
The official figures also disclosed that Lloyds, the part-Government owned high street bank, lent the Remain campaign £20,000 at an interest rate of just one per cent.
Vote Leave, the anti-European Union campaign, pointed out that the US banks were played key roles in the global financial crisis.
Lord Owen, the Eurosceptic former Labour foreign secretary, said the fact that such large multi-nationals had donated to the In campaign showed the Vote Leave group was engaged in a “David and Goliath fight”.
He said: “The EU works in the interests of the elite - the one per cent - so it is entirely unsurprising to find that the campaign to keep us in the Union is financed by big banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
“These figures show again that we are in a David vs Goliath fight, but it is one we are determined to win - for the good of the British people.
“They are the ones who pay the costs of uncontrolled migration - through lower wages, and unsustainable pressure on public services such as schools and hospitals.
“Now is the opportunity for them to strike back - and reclaim control of the £350 million we send to the EU every week, to spend it on their priorities instead.”
