Brexiter’s golden Kremlin links

sidekick, Andy Wigmore, shown to The Sunday Times, reveal the men made repeated contact with Russian officials to discuss business opportunities and issues of mutual interest throughout the referendum campaign and its aftermath.

In his book on the referendum, The Bad Boys of Brexit, and in another public statement, Banks claimed to have had only one meeting with Putin’s envoy, Alexander Yakovenko, in September 2015.

But The Sunday Times can reveal the pair also had lunch with the ambassador three days after they and Nigel Farage, then acting UK Independence Party (Ukip) leader, visited US president-elect Donald Trump in New York in November 2016. Banks has admitted he handed over phone numbers for members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials. Trump, whose campaign staff are under investigation by a special prosecutor over whether they colluded with Moscow, called this weekend for Russia to be readmitted to the G7 group of nations.

The leaked emails reveal an extensive web of links between the Leave.eu campaign, led by Farage, and Russian officials. They show:

– Banks and Wigmore were introduced to Yakovenko by Alexander Udod, a suspected Russian intelligence officer who was kicked out of the UK after the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury

– Yakovenko proposed a business deal that would have seen Banks and Wigmore involved in the consolidation into one company of six Russian goldmines

– The two Brexiteers in turn sought to involve Lord Guthrie, the former chief of the defence staff, and Peter Hambro, an Old Etonian dealer in precious metals known as ‘‘Goldfinger’’. – Sunday Times