We Remainers need to stop trying to convince ourselves the referendum was stolen

Anyone looking at the Independent’s front page the other day – or at least its electronic mock-up, made primarily for social media and TV paper reviews – will have seen a bombshell of a headline: ‘Illegal Facebook spending “won 2016 vote for Leave”’. That’s a seismic claim if it can be confirmed: the once-in-a-generation vote to leave the EU was won through what we now know was an illegal overspend of £500,000 or so. Except the Independent adopted an old newspaper trick: the biggest news is in quotes, suggesting that it’s not the newspaper claiming it, but rather someone else.

At first, that someone looks credible. It is from a witness statement submitted to the high court by Professor Philip Howard, the director of the respected Oxford Internet Institute. This is a man and an institution to be taken seriously. Which is a shame – as the quality of Howard’s research would shame an undergraduate.