The US’s second largest foundation, the Open Society Foundations (OSF) has donated £400,000 to Best for Britain, a group campaigning to keep the UK in the European Union.

George Soros.

The involvement of OSF – and by impliation its founder, the philanthropist and businessman George Soros – was reported this week in the right-leaning Daily Telegraph newspaper with the headline, ‘George Soros, the man who “broke the Bank of England”, backing secret plot to thwart Brexit’.

The Telegraph story was co-authored by Nick Timothy, chief of staff to Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May until his sudden departure following the party’s loss of its majority in the June 2017 general election.

The news is the latest episode in bitter political in-fighting which has accompanied the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Mark Malloch-Brown, a former Labour minister who chairs the campaign confirmed the donation, but said Best for Britain had followed rules governing financial contributions and that the campaign has received slightly more – £413,000 – in donations of less than £50 each.

He described the campaign as a ‘democratic and patriotic effort to recover our future and we welcome support for our efforts from many quarters’.