Brexiteer lobby group forced to move to Ireland due to a very unfortunate Brexit side effect

Now that the UK has officially left the EU, one group is facing some unexpected consequences.

In an ironically hilarious turn of events, Leave.EU, the Brexit lobbying group that counts Nigel Farage among its supporters, has been forced to move its registrant address to Waterford in the Republic of Ireland in order to keep its .eu domain name.

The organisation was founded by businessman Arron Banks, but the domain name is now registered under Sean Power, the chief executive of the Ireland-based company, BSG.

An estimated 340,000 owners of .eu domains were confronted with the ramifications of Brexit. These domains can only be held by owners based in the EU or the European Economic Area. However, the EU offered a solution by allowing owners to transfer the domain to an EU based owner.

Still, many did not make the change in time for the UK’s departure. Around 80,000 .eu domains were removed from the registry after the UK left the EU.

The irony of Leave.EU finding sanctuary in the EU was not lost on many.

In an even stranger development, Power, the Ireland-based owner of the Leave.EU domain, was apparently unaware that it is under his name, and said that he would be “looking into the matter”.