Arron Banks ‘spent £450,000 on lavish lifestyle for Farage’

MILLIONAIRE Brexit supporter Arron Banks spent £450,000 on a luxury lifestyle for Nigel Farage following the EU referendum, it was reported last night.

Mr Banks is said to have used one of his companies to rent a £4.4 million Chelsea home, a £30,000 car and a chauffeur costing £20,000.

He also paid £1,500 a month for an office and more for a personal assistant for Mr Farage, now leader of the Brexit Party, Channel 4 News claimed.

The insurance tycoon also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds promoting ‘Brand Farage’ in the US, it reported.

Rock Services Ltd, a company owned by Mr Banks, was said to have leased the threebedroom home with a garage in Chelsea, West London, for Claims: Mr Banks and Brexit Party leader Mr Farage Mr Farage at an estimated cost of £13,000 a month in the summer of 2016.

Mr Banks also bought furniture and fittings for the house, Channel 4 News said, and Mr Farage was provided with a Land Rover Discovery and a close protection driver.

Mr Banks also allegedly sought to raise a further £130,000 from unnamed supporters to cover Mr Farage’s security detail. He is said to have funded a private office space for the Brexit Party leader in Westminster and paid for a personal assistant.

Mr Farage continued to serve as a member of the European Parliament on a salary of £87,000 a year plus expenses.

Invoices, emails and other documents are said to reveal that Mr Banks, through his companies, organised and funded multiple visits to the United States for Mr Farage in the year following the Brexit vote. In July 2016, Mr Banks is understood to have flown Mr Farage business class to Cleveland, Ohio, to attend the Republican National Convention.

Through a company called Southern Rock, Mr Banks paid an American lobbying firm Goddard Gunster £64,064 for a ‘Nigel Farage Brexit Policy Luncheon’, Channel 4 News claimed. In the autumn of 2016, Rock Services arranged for Mr Farage and Mr Banks’s associate Andy Wigmore to travel to America on multiple occasions, according to the broadcaster.

Mr Banks is under investigation by the National Crime Agency over the source of money used to fund his Leave. EU referendum campaign. His companies are also subject to an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Leave.EU has been found to have breached electoral rules and was fined by the Electoral Commission.

Mr Farage has repeatedly denied that Mr Banks has made any donations to the Brexit Party, or has any involvement with it. He denies any wrongdoing and his spokesman declined to comment on the new claims.

Mr Banks said: ‘Channel 4 attempts to smear myself and Nigel at a time when the Brexit Party is riding high in the polls, so it should come as no surprise to anyone.’

‘Attempts to smear me’