Millionaire who bankrolled Farage’s fight to leave the EU
ARRON Banks has been dubbed ‘the man who bought Brexit’ for bankrolling Nigel Farage’s campaign to leave the EU.
The businessman has donated millions to Ukip and in 2016 he backed Mr Farage’s Leave.EU group.
He was pictured alongside Donald Trump when the President met Nigel Farage in New York just days after his shock US election victory in November 2016.
But now he is facing calls to explain a series of alleged meetings with Russian embassy officials.
Mr Banks, 52, made his fortune from the Bristol-based insurance broker Brightside, which he founded. He then went on to launch another firm, GoSkippy, and is now said to be worth £100million. He is married to Russian Ekaterina Paderina and has five children.
Originally a modest Tory donor, in 2014 he defected to Ukip in desperation at David Cameron’s stance on Europe.
Former Conservative leader William Hague made the mistake of describing Mr Banks as ‘somebody we haven’t heard of’ following his defection, prompting him to up his donation to £1million.
Mr Banks said at the time: ‘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.’
He added: ‘So in light of that, I have decided to give £1million.’