skip to main content

Major pro-Brexit group moves website office to Ireland

Founder Arron Banks ran the Leave.EU group with Andy Wigmore
Founder Arron Banks ran the Leave.EU group with Andy Wigmore

Pro-Brexit campaign group Leave.EU has migrated the registered office of its website to Ireland to maintain a European internet address, an organisation official has said.

Leave.EU was the largest unofficial pro-Brexit lobby group in the 2016 referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Founder Arron Banks ran the group with Andy Wigmore - two self-styled "bad boys of Brexit" who ran a firebrand campaign convincing Britain to sever ties with the bloc.

In an email to AFP, Mr Wigmore confirmed Irish media reports that the organisation has now shifted the registered office of its site to Waterford.

Britain officially left the EU last year. However, relations were frozen until the start of 2021, when a new deal began to govern relations between London and Brussels.

Belgium-headquartered internet domain registry EURid manages the ".eu" web suffix by appointment of the European Commission.

They warned British site managers using ".eu" addresses that as of 1 January "their domain name is no longer compliant with the .eu regulatory framework" and would be suspended.

Managers could retain the address by "indicating a legally established entity in one of the eligible Union Member States", a notice to website managers said.