Arron Banks

Early life and career

Banks was born in Northwich, Cheshire. He spent the first part of his childhood in South Africa, and returned to the UK to attend a private school in Berkshire before being expelled for "an accumulation of offences", including the sale of lead stolen from the roofs of school buildings and "high-spirited bad behaviour".

Banks married young, and was offered a junior job at Lloyd's of London. By the age of 27, he was running a division of Norwich Union. He spent a year working for Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of Warren Buffett.

He is a father of five and married to Russian Ekaterina Paderina, who is reported to have received help to remain in the UK from Mike Hancock while he was an MP.

In August 2012, Banks was arrested on suspicion of harassment, but not charged, and was issued with a controversial "prevention of harassment" notice and words of advice after harassment allegations by 33-year-old Jo Featherby. After Featherby had complained to the police, she was dismissed from the insurance company GoSkippy — linked to Banks's firm Brightside. Featherby commenced employment tribunal proceedings against GoSkippy, alleging unfair dismissal. She later agreed an out-of-court settlement.

Business career

Banks was the chief executive (CEO) of Southern Rock Insurance Company in 2014, which underwrites insurance policies for the website GoSkippy.com, which was founded by Banks. He previously co-founded Brightside Group in 2005, and was its CEO from June 2011 to June 2012, at which time the company was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM). After Banks' departure, Brightside took legal action against him, alleging he used confidential information in setting up GoSkippy.com six months later. There were also legal actions between Southern Rock and Brightside.

He was previously CEO of AIM-listed Manx Financial Group from April 2008 to February 2009, and CEO of Group Direct Limited.

According to Companies House records, Banks has set up 37 different companies using slight variations of his name. The names used by Banks are Aron Fraser Andrew Banks, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks, Arron Fraser Andrew Banks and Arron Banks. The profiles for the first three names all use the same date of birth but register different lists of companies. When asked by The Guardian about this, he declined to answer questions on the topic.

In 2016, the leaked Panama Papers indicated Banks was the shareholder of British Virgin Islands company PRI Holdings Limited, which was the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited. However, a spokesperson for Banks has denied any links to the lawyer named and denies that Banks was involved with the Papers.

Banks has stated that he has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and a licence to mine in Lesotho.

Banks has an estimated wealth of £100 million.

Political career and donations

Banks was previously a Conservative Party donor, but announced in October 2014 he would instead donate £1 million to the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Banks said that he had changed party allegiance because he agrees with UKIP's policies and its view that the European Union "is holding the UK back" because it's a "closed shop for bankrupt countries". Banks has been described as the "leading figure" behind the anti-EU Grassroots Out and Leave.EU, as well as the official Vote Leave campaign.

He signalled his intention to stand for UKIP in the constituency of Thornbury and Yate at the 2015 general election, but the candidate chosen by the party was Russ Martin, who came third. He indicated he would stand in Clacton at the 2017 general election against Douglas Carswell, but later decided otherwise.

Banks claimed in March 2017 that he had been suspended from UKIP; he believed the reason was that he had criticised the leadership. UKIP said, however, that his membership had lapsed before this time.

Conservative Party donations

A spokesman for Nigel Farage said that Banks had funded the Chipping Sodbury office for the South Gloucestershire Conservatives "to the tune of £250,000". However, a Conservative spokesperson said the support was "nothing like the order of magnitude" of sums claimed, and estimated that the donations were "probably around the £22,000 mark".

A UKIP source told The Guardian that Banks had also loaned £75,417 to Thornbury and Yate Conservative Party through Panacea Finance (his former company) in September 2007, registered on the Electoral Commission and to be paid back by 2022. However, Companies House records show that Banks resigned from the company in September 2005; therefore it was considered questionable as to whether Banks was controlling the company at the time, or whether he was "using the firm as a 'proxy donor'", according to The Guardian.

Relationship with Eurosceptic organisations

In October 2014 Banks donated £1 million to the UK Independence Party and has since raised the equivalent of $11 million for the party. He has also funded Leave.EU by the equivalent of $5 million, and has been seen as the financial backer of the Brexit campaign.

Labour MP Michael Dugher said that Banks' defection showed that "David Cameron is haemorrhaging support and his authority is ebbing away. He can't control his party, who clearly have no confidence in his leadership. And once again we see that UKIP are reliant on Tory money as well as Tory policy and Tory politicians, putting paid to the idea that they stand up for working people." Conservative MP William Hague called Banks "somebody we haven't heard of" following his defection to UKIP: In response, Banks increased his donation from £100,000 to £1 million, saying: "I woke up this morning intending to give £100,000 to UKIP - then I heard Mr Hague's comment about me being a Mr Nobody. So in light of that I have decided to give £1 million." This donation was one of the largest sums of money ever received by UKIP.

Banks threatened Douglas Carswell with deselection in September 2015 when it emerged that Carswell supported Vote Leave, as opposed to the Leave.EU campaign funded by Banks, describing Carswell as "borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in", according to The Huffington Post.

In April 2016, Private Eye revealed that Leave.EU "is registered at Companies House as Better for the Country Ltd. and controlled by major UKIP donor Arron Banks, after Gibraltar company STM Fidecs Nominees Ltd. transferred its interest to him in August." Banks, along with property investor Richard Tice and media guru Andrew Wigmore, donated £4.3m to the group.

Banks credits the success of Leave.EU to their hiring of Goddard Gunster and their subsequent adoption of "an American-style media approach". Banks said, "What [Goddard Gunster] said early on was 'facts don’t work' and that's it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success."

Possibility of "rightwing Momentum"

In September 2016, following Banks' statement that UKIP would be "dead in the water" if Diane James did not become leader, he said that he would leave UKIP if Steven Woolfe was prevented from running for leader and two other senior members remained in the party: "If Neil Hamilton and Douglas Carswell [UKIP's only MP] remain in the party, and the NEC decide that Steven Woolfe cannot run for leader, I will be leaving Ukip".

Banks has become increasingly sceptical of UKIP under the leadership of Paul Nuttall. Banks said that Leave.EU would continue campaigning as a "rightwing Momentum", ensuring that politicians do not renege on their commitment to leave the EU. Banks has also considered starting and funding a pro-Brexit, nonpartisan citizens' movement called Patriotic Alliance, based on the Five Star Movement, which would target "the 200 worst, most corrupt MPs" for deselection.

Brexit

Claiming that Britain's EU membership "is like having a first class ticket on the Titanic", Banks said that "Economically, remaining in the EU is unsustainable."

Banks claimed his policy during the Brexit campaign was to "bore the electorate into submission", in the hope that a low turnout would favour Brexit.

Controversies

Banks threatened to sue the official Vote Leave campaign's candidacy as the official spokesperson for the "Leave" vote in the 2016 EU referendum, which may have possibly delayed the vote by two months. However, Banks has since rejected this and stated that he would not pursue a judicial review any further. Banks has also claimed that Vote Leave were deliberately lying when they claimed that the UK sends £350 million to the European Union, claiming this does not take into consideration the rebate which the UK receives from the EU, and that the £350 million is not actually sent to the EU headquarters in Brussels.

Following the murder of Jo Cox, Arron Banks controversially commissioned a poll on whether her murder had affected public opinion on voting. Asked whether the wording of the poll was "tasteless", Banks said "I don't think so", adding that: "We were hoping to see what the effect of the event was. That is an interesting point of view, whether it would shift public opinion."

In August 2017 Banks wrote to all voters in Philip Hammond's constituency, seeking support for a move to deselect Hammond. In response to a constituent's email, Hammond said I "...others will disagree with my views and someone with opposing views to mine can always stand for election against me.... I challenge Mr Banks to do so".

Aftermath

In the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU, Banks emailed a note to journalists attacking his critics. Banks described the Electoral Commission as "the legal division of the In campaign" and disagreed with their decision to enlist Vote Leave as the official campaign. Also, Banks' response to the information commissioner, who last month fined the campaign £50,000 for sending more than half a million unsolicited text messages, was a succinct "Whatever". Banks views the Brexit vote as "a kind of halfhearted revolution" due to the fact that Theresa May, who supported Britain remaining in the EU, would end up betraying those who voted to leave.

LibLabCon.com

Banks gave significant funds to LibLabCon.com, a satirical website dedicated to attacking the three major parties. The website included jokes about the treatment of religious people by the Conservatives, claimed Chuka Umunna is "Labour's chief spokesman for tokenism" and described Amnesty International as an organisation which supports "loudmouth idiots chained to a radiator". UKIP sources insisted that Banks did not write the material on the website. Despite receiving the support of Banks and Tim Aker, UKIP told the Daily Mail the website was not linked to them.

Westmonster

On 19 January 2017 (one day before Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States) Banks launched Westmonster alongside Michael Heaver, former press adviser to Nigel Farage. It is modelled on the popular right-wing US websites Breitbart News and the Drudge Report and claims to be "pro-Brexit, pro-Farage, pro-Trump, anti-establishment, anti-open borders, anti-corporatism". Banks believes that Leave.EU's 800,000 Twitter followers will drive traffic towards the website. In the morning of 19 January, Westmonster's Twitter account had gained more than 2,500 followers.

Owners

Westmonster is co-owned by Arron Banks and Michael Heaver, former press adviser to Nigel Farage.

The official registered owners of the site are Heaver, who owns 50% of the website and is a daily editor, and Better for the Country Ltd. Better for the Country Ltd is the company that ran Leave.EU (one of two main pro-Brexit campaigns, affiliated to Farage) and is directed by Leave.EU's chief executive, Elizabeth Bilney. Better for the Country Ltd is also registered to the same address as Westmonster.

Early contributors and style

Westmonster was launched 19 January 2017, one day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. Its welcome message stated that the political establishment had "taken one hell of a beating" in 2016, adding that "2017 might just be even bigger". The timing of this launch was seen as sign that the anti-establishment media which helped Trump to gain power was arriving in the UK, according to BBC News' media editor Amol Rajan.

Although primarily a news aggregator website akin to the Drudge Report, Westmonster does plan to publish original content and enlist the support of celebrities and backbench MPs. Early contributions to the website include the a piece written by Nigel Farage claiming that the "political establishment" of the United Kingdom had not woken up to European populist movements, as well as articles showing majority British support for a burka ban and attacking "remoaners" for "trying to subvert the will of the people".

Heaver was keen for Westmonster to replicate the success of Breitbart in the United States, whose executive chairman, Stephen Bannon, became President-elect Trump's chief strategist.

Tax avoidance

Following intensified media scrutiny after his initial donation to UKIP, it emerged that Banks was involved in mining in southern Africa and had connections to Belize. Banks also has connections to companies based in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, and close connections with family members of the Belizean Prime Minister. However, following remarks made by The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci on BBC One's Question Time programme, Banks denied owning a company in Belize or seeking to avoid UK tax "via any device". Describing the comments as "clearly defamatory", he threatened legal action towards Iannucci if he did not get an apology within a week.

Asked if his companies paid full corporation tax, Banks "I paid over £2.5m of income tax last year ... My insurance business, like a lot of them, is based in Gibraltar but I've got UK businesses as well that deal with customers and pay tax like everyone else." One of the UK businesses of which Banks is director, Rock Services Ltd, had a turnover of £19.7m last year and paid corporation tax of £12,000. The company deducted £19.6m in "administrative expenses", and the main activity appears to be "recharge of goods and services" with Southern Rock Insurance Company. Southern Rock Insurance states on its website that it underwrites policies for the customers of GoSkippy.com, which is run by Banks. Because it is based in Gibraltar, there is little information available on it.

Rock Services and Southern Rock Insurance's ultimate holding company is Rock Holdings Ltd, a company based on the Isle of Man. Banks has also been a "substantial" shareholder in STM Fidecs, of which Leave.EU is a subsidiary; the company claims to be specialising in "international wealth protection", maximising tax efficiencies for entrepreneurs and expatriates and of "structuring international groups, particularly separating and relocating intellectual property and treasury functions to low- or no-tax jurisdictions".

Panama Papers

Following the release of the Panama Papers, The Guardian wrote that "Banks, who has given Ukip more than £1m and is spearheading the anti-EU referendum campaign, appears as the shareholder of a BVI company called PRI Holdings Limited. Shares from PRI were also transferred to Elizabeth Bilney, the chief executive of Leave.EU. PRI Holdings is in turn the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited, which is a British Virgin Islands company managed in Gibraltar."