Banks cuts MPS’ questioning short by leaving for lunch in the Commons bar
A COMMONS committee hearing about “fake news” was brought to an abrupt halt when two chief witnesses stood up and left, saying they were late for a lunch.
Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, two supporters of the Leave.eu campaign, were quizzed for three hours over the conduct of their campaign in the 2016 EU referendum.
In often spiky exchanges, Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore accused the whole culture, media and sport committee of being Remain supporters with a “vested interest in trying to discredit the Brexit campaign”.
The session ended with Mr Banks telling the committee he and Mr Wigmore had “places to be”, and leaving for lunch before the MPS’ questioning had finished.
When Damian Collins MP, the committee’s chairman, suggested a few more questions, Mr Banks said: “Sorry, I really will have to insist. I was told a certain time and we have got a luncheon appointment we don’t want to be late for.” Mr Wigmore chipped in: “You can join us if you want. We will be in the House of Commons bar.”
Mr Collins later said he would write to the pair to “follow up on various points raised during their evidence”.
Mr Banks was earlier put under pressure over claims he held undisclosed meetings with Russian embassy officials and discussed a gold mines deal around the time of the 2016 referendum. Mr Banks admitted seeing the ambassador twice, and then the mine owner, but declined to get involved after being advised it could be “problematic”.
Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore gave emails to the MPS which showed senior Ukip figures were approached by US embassy officials ahead of the 2017 general election. They said later that the officials were CIA agents.
According to the emails – seen by The Daily Telegraph – Mr Wigmore, Mr Banks and Nigel Farage met with a senior official at the US embassy on Nov 23 2016. On Jan 12 2017, a second official asked Mr Wigmore to arrange a meeting with Paul Nuttall, the Ukip leader.
A spokesman for Mr Nuttall said last night it was “possible” that he had met the official on February 9 in Stoke but he “could not remember”.
A spokesman for the US Embassy said: “Embassy officials met occasionally with Mr Banks and Mr Wigmore in late 2016 and early 2017 at their request, after exchanging a series of emails.”