[Anderson:] Welcome back. Quick reminder of our top story this hour. The U.S. President says he accepts his own country's intelligence on Russian election meddling sort of and he misspoke he says, during his press conference with Vladimir Putin, sort of, he says. And that clarification satisfied critics, or sort of not. Today President Trump continues to defend his performance in Helsinki tweeting that it was loved by many people at the higher ends of intelligence. And those complaining are haters who wanted to see a boxing match. To the thorn in Theresa May's side now that is Brexit. Earlier today the British Prime Minister faced her last question time before the summer break. And she was attacked by both Labour and members of her own Conservative Party about her plans to get out of the EU.
[Andrea Jenkyns, Conservative Member Of Parliament:] Did the prime minister inform the house at what point it was decided that Brexit means remain?
[John Berow, Speaker Of The House Of Commons:] Prime minister.
[Theresa May, British Prime Minister:] Can I say to honorable friend. At absolutely no point because Brexit continues to mean Brexit. And I could say to my honorable friend, I know that she wants us to talk about the positives of Brexit and I agree with her. I think what we need is a solution that is going to work for the United Kingdom and sure we leave the European Union and embrace that bright future that we both agree.
[Bianca Nobilo, Cnn Westminster:] Well, Becky, we didn't hear the starting gun being fired, but I think it's a little more complicated than that. So, on the surface Boris Johnson by his standards delivered an incredibly measured speech. He's a huge fan of rhetorical flourish and over-the-top language. He studied rhetoric and he really indulges in it most of the time when he speaks. And he's got a reputation for not taking himself too seriously. There are plenty of incidences for when he was London mayor that come to mind. But today the speech was very measured. As you mentioned he didn't attack the Prime Minister personally. In fact, he praised her courage and her resilience. But he did lay into her Brexit strategy. Basically, saying that she reneged of the promises of her Lancaster House speech. Which set out a fairly hard Brexit. But he did say Brexit could be salvaged. Let's take a listen.
[Boris Johnson, Former British Foreign Secretary:] It is not too late to save Brexit. We have time in these negotiations. We have changed tack once and we can change again. The problem is not that we failed to make the case for a free trade agreement of the kind spelled out in Lancaster House, we haven't even tried.
[Nobilo:] That was his main point, that there was still cause for optimism. That enough of an attempt hadn't been made to steer Britain down the course to a hard Brexit where it would be fully independent. Now to come back to a question, Becky, it didn't sound like a leadership bid. As we said, no personal attacks against the Prime Minister. It was very calm and controlled but that is precisely why I think it is actually the beginning of an oblique leadership campaign. Because the chief criticism of Boris Johnson is always levered when he's mentioned as a possible leader of the Conservative Party, is the fact that he's not a serious enough contender. He doesn't have the statesman-ly quality. He isn't considered, he isn't cautious enough. Well, this was one of the first speeches that we've heard of his where he seemed to prove that he was, in fact, all of those things. So, watch this space, Becky. I really think precisely the fact that it didn't seem like a leadership bid is exactly why it might be.
[Anderson:] Very good point. Bianca, thank you. All this Brexit unrest comes in the wake of an explosive finding from the U.K. Electoral Commission that the Vote Leave campaign violated election laws. In the final weeks of June of 2016, Vote Leave was running up against its spending limit so according to the commission it transferred more than 600,000 pounds, just under $1 million to a small organization called BeLeave. Much of that money ended up going to a Canadian data analytics firm. One major reasons this scheme was discovered was a man named Shahmir Sanni. He was a volunteer for both Vote Leave and BeLeave. He knew about the money being funneled between the groups and he blew the whistle on it. He joins me live from our London bureau. Briefly describe why you got involved in the first place, your role and why you blew the whistle.
[Shahmir Sanni, Vote Leave Whistleblower:] Well, I started off the Vote Leave as a volunteer. And then within Vote Leave they had a multitude of outreach groups which were created to target specific demographics to increase the chances of people voting leave, standard campaign practice and BeLeave was one of them. So, I started volunteering for Vote Leave within Vote Leave for BeLeave. By the end of the campaign BeLeave had become a separate through the advice of lawyers and the senior staff, two volunteers, Darren Grins and myself, set up BeLeave as a separate organization. And after that we received 625,000 pounds to give directly to AIQ. And obviously at the time we didn't know that it was illegal because we were being advised by lawyers. It was only through my own self-reflection that I came to terms with the fact that actually this went against electoral law and I came forward.
[Anderson:] All right, I know you're raising money on the internet to help fund your lawsuit against Prime Minister May's government. I want you to explain why. I know that so far, you've raised more than 36,000 pounds via crowd funding for your lawsuit. What do you hope that that will prove? I want to talk about Brexit and the outcome or the fallout from your whistleblowing shortly. We just want you to answer that first question if you will.
[Sanni:] Well, when I came forward Number Ten released the press release saying that I had essentially come forward with the information because I was a bitter boyfriend of one of the political advisors to the Prime Minister. In fact, the political adviser wasn't the only person that I told the electoral commission and authorities about. It was a number of people. Including Vote Leave as an entire organization. Now, Number Ten used my sexuality as a weapon to intimidate and silence me and deter the story. And they called my allegations just that, allegations. But now they've been proven by the electoral commission to be fact. And the reason why it's important is because it's this entire issue goes to the heart of Number Ten. Boris Johnson, for example, called my allegations ludicrous and said that Vote Leave had acted totally legally and now we know that that's entirely not true. So, we really need to be asking questions as to how much did Number Ten know? How much did Boris know? And how much did cabinet ministers that were involved with Vote Leave know about this, the breaking of the law.
[Anderson:] I mean, some people will say, well, we're talking about less than $1 million, 700,000 quid, but it broke the law and that is what the electoral commission has deemed. Now a political cartoon from the esteemed "Times" newspaper shows Theresa May being poked and prodded towards a second referendum and a very risky looking path there. Do you want to provoke that, another vote, another referendum? Because it would be extremely difficult to prove that this over spend by the leave campaign actually tipped the vote in favor of Brexit. So, I wonder if you are provoking the idea of a new referendum, where would that get Britain?
[Sanni:] Well, one, it doesn't matter whether it would have tipped the referendum this way or the other. All we know is that it could have gone the other way if the law had not been broken. Secondly, this isn't another referendum. This is a first referendum without the breaking of the law. That any argument against if we go through with Brexit, I mean I find it surreal that there are MPs arguing for this current Brexit process when we know the first referendum was totally based on the breaking of the law. That's not how democracy works. In this country democracy is based on following the law. Our campaigns and our elections are based on following the law. That is the core and foundation of democracy. And if our referendum was not based on the law, then it is not a democratic referendum.
[Anderson:] We don't normally do this as Brits. We don't normally ask people how they vote but given that you were campaigning for the U.K. to leave the EU, I have to assume you would have vote leave the first time.
[Sanni:] Yes.
[Anderson:] Would you vote to remain?
[Sanni:] No.
[Anderson:] Would there or should there be another referendum?
[Sanni:] No. Because the whole point of why I've done this is because I voted leave because I believe in sovereignty and democracy. It's why many people voted leave. They voted leave because they wanted to have their own rules. They wanted to take control. But the facts of the matter are that this government, including cabinet ministers and former cabinet ministers like Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Priti Patel, among many others are complicit in referendum that broke the law. So, there's really no question about it. You're either for the law or you're for what? Like breaking the law.
[Anderson:] Shahmir, thank you for coming on. Shahmir Sanni with us on the show today. That's an important story and one that we should not forget within the context, the wider context of this whole Brexit debate that is going on and paralyzing British politics at present. British people I'm sure are completely fed up with it. Live from Abu Dhabi, this is CONNECT THE WORLD. Coming up, the European Union has slapped Google with a massive fine. Find out why the search engine is in hot water. That's next.