_{Photo: Screengrab via Leave.EU/Twitter}

Arron Banks

Credentials

An in-depth profile of Banks at The New Statesman noted that in his early life he went to a “third-rate” boarding school, Crookham Court in Berkshire, where he was expelled for an “accumulation of offences.” He was later expelled again for a “monumental pub crawl,” and said that his lack of “educational attainment” ruled out university. “So he returned to Basingstoke, where he sold paintings, then vacuum cleaners, then houses.’“I was quite good at persuading people to buy things they didn’t want to buy,’ he says.”¹

Background

Arron F. Banks is a businessman famous for being one of the main funders of the UK’s Brexit campaign. He was a co-founder and donor for the Leave.EU group, headed by Nigel Farage, that campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union.² ³ ⁴

Banks has donated millions to both the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Conservative party, and sits within a transatlantic network of influential individuals spreading climate disinformation in the UK and US.⁵ ⁶ ⁷

The Guardian reported in 2018 that the National Crime Agency would investigate multiple allegations of criminal offense by Banks and his unofficial leave campaign in Brexit. A statement by the Electoral Commission noted that there were grounds to suspect Banks was “not the true source” of £8m in funding to the Leave.EU campaign.⁸

Stance on Climate Change

March 19, 2017

In a tweet, Banks wrote:⁹

“Global climate change represents the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich ever via inflated energy costs”.

January 2016

Regarding flooding in the UK Banks said:¹⁰

“The politicians swanking around the disaster zones in hard hats and hi-viz jackets are pointing the finger at climate change – a convenient bogeyman in this situation, but in truth  this is an unnatural disaster which was made to order in Brussels.”

Key Quotes

June 2016

On the Brexit campaign:¹¹

“It was taking an American-style media approach. What they said early on was ‘facts don’t work’ and that’s it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success.”

Key Actions

May 27, 2021

Arron Banks sued Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), claiming that a six-figure inheritance tax bill on his donations to UKIP was discriminatory at the Court of Appeal, The New European reported.¹²

On October 6, 2021, the Evening Standard reported that Banks had lost the appeal.¹³

May 16, 2019

A Channel 4 News investigation revealed that Banks, had spent approximately £450,000 funding a lavish lifestyle for Nigel Farage in the year following the 2016 EU referendum.¹⁴

June 2018

Leaked emails showed that Banks met with the Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko three times in the run up to the EU referendum.¹⁵

Documents obtained by The Sunday Times also revealed Banks held multiple meetings with Russian officials and flew out to Moscow in February 2016 to meet key financiers and partners behind a gold mine project. MPs called for the police and parliament to launch an investigation. Banks had previously said that his contacts with Russian officials consisted of “one boozy lunch” at the Russian embassy.¹⁶

After appearing in-front of a parliamentary committee to defend against allegations of collusion with Russia, Banks and former Leave.EU spokesperson Andy Wigmore were photographed with members of the Democratic Unionist Party, including infamous climate science denier Sammy Wilson.¹⁷

June 28, 2018

The UK Charity commission found that a charity set up by Banks “risked misleading” the public about donations and other information in its annual accounts. BBC News reported that the Charity Commission had found some funds connected to the charity, “Love Saves The Day,” were not “properly accounted for” although there had not been a misuse of funds. Banks said claims he was personally at fault were “utter rubbish.”¹⁸

January 2017

Banks launched the Breitbart-inspired far-right website Westmonster, which is sponsored by Banks’ insurance company Go Skippy.¹⁹ ²⁰

November 2016

Banks is pictured alongside Nigel Farage and then president-elect Donald Trump in an infamous photo taken at Trump Towers.²¹

July 2016

Following the successful vote for the UK to leave the EU in June 2016, Banks announced support for Andrea Leadsom in the Conservative party leadership race to replace David Cameron. Leadsom was a Vote Leave campaign committee member and has ties to a network of groups spreading climate disinformation based out of 55 Tufton Street.²²

May 2016

Banks attended an event at Cato Institute thinktank in the US, which is known for spreading climate disinformation, reportedly saying there would be economic pain in the event of the UK leaving the EU, but that it was a price worth paying for independence.²³

He also met with representatives of the Atlantic Council, American Foreign Policy Council and the Heritage Foundation, along with the US Treasury Department and the Department of State on the same trip.²⁴