A quick update on our previous coverage of the court case over more than £350,000 of impermissible donations accepted by UKIP. Last month the Supreme Court ruled in UKIP’s favour, reducing the amount UKIP has to repay to just under £15,000.

Although on a strict narrow literal reading of the legislation wording all impermissible donations have to be forfeit, by a 4-3 ruling the Supreme Court decided that the word “forfeit” is  used in an unusual way in the wording of the legislation and that the wider context shows that the total of impermissible donations is the maximum that needs to be paid back. As a result, instead of ordering the paying back of the full sum, the court instead only ordered that the donations received after a warning meeting with the Electoral Commission need repaying.