Arron Banks

Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 1966) is a British businessman and political donor. He was the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign and one of the largest donors to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), helping Nigel Farage's campaign for Brexit.

In November 2018 the National Crime Agency opened an investigation into Banks following concerns raised over the source of his funding. In September 2019, the NCA dropped its investigation into Banks and Leave.EU, finding "no evidence that any criminal offences have been committed."

Banks was reported to have had multiple meetings with Russian embassy officials as well as being offered business opportunities in Russia in the run-up to the Brexit referendum. He denied any wrongdoing and said: "There was no Russian money and no interference of any type." In May 2020, the Electoral Commission, who had referred Banks to the NCA for investigation of these allegations, conceded Banks did not break electoral law during the 2016 EU referendum campaign. Banks said he had been "completely vindicated" after reaching a settlement with the Electoral Commission.

In the 2025 West of England mayoral election, Banks was Reform UK's candidate to become the directly-elected mayor of the West of England Combined Authority, losing narrowly to the winning Labour candidate, Helen Godwin.

Early life Banks was born in Cheshire, England, and raised by his mother in Basingstoke, Hampshire; his father worked as a sugar plantation manager in various African countries. From the age of 13 he attended a boarding school in Berkshire called Crookham Court, before being expelled for "an accumulation of offences", including the sale of lead stolen from the roofs of school buildings, and "high-spirited bad behaviour". He then attended St Bartholomew's School in Newbury but was expelled again. He returned to Basingstoke, where he sold paintings, vacuum cleaners, and then houses.

Business career Banks was offered a junior job at the insurance market of Lloyd's of London. According to The Guardian, by the age of 27, he was running a division of Norwich Union. The article also claims that he spent a year working for Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of Warren Buffett. However, in another investigation in 2017, both Norwich Union and Warren Buffett reject Banks' claim that he worked for them. Then, from an office above a bakery in Thornbury, Gloucestershire, Banks started a motorcycle insurance broker, Motorcycle Direct, and within a few years the company was big enough to sell for "a few million". He used the money to found Commercial Vehicle Direct about which he says "within a very short period we were the largest van insurance company in the country". After Banks' departure, Brightside took legal action against him, alleging he used confidential information in setting up GoSkippy.com six months later. There were also legal actions between Southern Rock and Brightside.

Banks was CEO of AIM-listed Manx Financial Group from April 2008 to February 2009.

Banks also owns Eldon Insurance, whose CEO Elizabeth Bilney was also in charge at Leave.EU. The company's profits leapt to £16.7m for the first half of 2017 after recording a £284,000 profit in 2015 and a loss of £22,500 in 2016 despite a 40% increase in revenue. Banks said that Eldon's business had been transformed by the same AI technology used in the Brexit campaign. The offshore holding company that controls Eldon Insurance is ICS Risk Solutions, which funds many of Banks' activities and has paid over £77m between 2015 and 2018 to prop up Southern Rock after Gibraltarian regulators found the business to be trading while technically insolvent. As part of an agreement with the regulators Banks resigned his directorships at Eldon in 2013 and Southern Rock in 2014, also accepting a "period of ban or self-exclusion from other insurance directorships".

Banks also bought Old Down Manor from musician Mike Oldfield, converting it into a wedding venue. However, a spokesperson for Banks has denied any links to the lawyer named and denies that Banks was involved with the Papers. Banks has stated that he has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and a licence to mine in Lesotho. In July 2018, Banks denied that money paid to a government minister in Lesotho was a bribe; it had been paid to guarantee diamond mining rights in Lesotho. In 2013, Banks paid £65,000 into the private bank account of Thesele Maseribane, then the Basotho minister for women's equality. Banks subsequently covered the £350,000 costs of a political campaign for Maseribane, in 2014, following a military coup in Lesotho.

In January 2015, one estimate of Banks's wealth was £100 million.

Other business associations Following intensified media scrutiny after his initial donation to UKIP, it emerged that Banks was involved in mining in southern Africa and had connections to Belize. Banks also has connections to companies based in Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, and close connections with family members of the Belizean Prime Minister. However, following remarks made by The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci on BBC One's Question Time programme, Banks denied owning a company in Belize or seeking to avoid UK tax "via any device". Describing the comments as "clearly defamatory", he threatened legal action towards Iannucci if he did not get an apology within a week.

Asked if his companies paid full corporation tax, Banks said: "I paid over £2.5m of income tax last year ... My insurance business, like a lot of them, is based in Gibraltar but I've got UK businesses as well that deal with customers and pay tax like everyone else."

Political career and donations UK Independence Party Formerly a Conservative Party donor, in October 2014 Banks donated £100,000 to the UK Independence Party. In response to comments from William Hague that Banks had not been a major Conservative donor in past years, and that he had never heard of Banks, Banks increased his UKIP donation to £1 million, directly referencing Hague's interview as his reasoning. Banks said that he had changed party allegiance because he agreed with UKIP's policies and its view that the European Union "is holding the UK back" because it's a "closed shop for bankrupt countries".

Banks signalled his intention to stand for UKIP in the constituency of Thornbury and Yate at the 2015 general election, but the candidate chosen by the party was Russ Martin, who came third.

In September 2016, following Banks's statement that UKIP would be "dead in the water" if Diane James did not become leader, he said that he would leave UKIP if Steven Woolfe was prevented from running for leader and two other senior members, Neil Hamilton and Douglas Carswell, remained in the party.

Banks was sceptical of Paul Nuttall's leadership of UKIP (from November 2016 until June 2017), saying in December 2016 that he might stop supporting the party.

In February 2017, Banks suggested that he might stand in Clacton at the next general election against Carswell, UKIP's only MP. He said in March 2017 that he had been suspended from UKIP, believing the reason was that he had criticised the leadership. UKIP said that his membership had lapsed before this time. In April 2017, he said he would not be contesting the Clacton seat.

In May 2018, Banks joined former UKIP leader Nigel Farage in attending a fundraising event for the Democratic Unionist Party, and stated that he would support a bid by Farage to seek office as a DUP candidate after the end of his tenure as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019.

Conservative Party In October 2014, a spokesman for Nigel Farage said that Banks had funded the Chipping Sodbury office for the South Gloucestershire Conservatives "to the tune of £250,000". However, a Conservative spokesperson said the support was "nothing like the order of magnitude" of sums claimed, and estimated that the donations were "probably around the £22,000 mark". A Conservative Party spokesman said that welcoming emails were automatic but applications were subsequently reviewed, and theirs had been rejected.

Reform UK candidate In the 2025 West of England mayoral election, which took place on 1 May 2025, Banks was Reform UK's candidate to become the directly-elected mayor of the West of England Combined Authority. He came second, gaining 22 per cent of the votes, while the winning Labour candidate, Helen Godwin, had 25 per cent. Banks won more votes than any other candidate in South Gloucestershire.

Banks told the Financial Times in September 2025 that Reform UK should roll back human rights laws and get rid of legislation underpinning corporate regulation, saying in regards to regulators that he wants to "get rid of virtually everything". He funded Leave.EU to the equivalent of $5 million, and has been seen as the financial backer of the Brexit campaign.

In October 2014, Banks said that the UK's EU membership was "like having a first class ticket on the Titanic". He also said that "economically, remaining in the EU is unsustainable." In September 2015, Banks threatened UKIP MP Douglas Carswell with deselection when it emerged that Carswell supported Vote Leave, as opposed to the Leave.EU campaign funded by Banks. According to The Huffington Post, he described Carswell as "borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in".

In April 2016, Private Eye reported that Leave.EU "is registered at Companies House as Better for the Country Ltd. and controlled by major UKIP donor Arron Banks, after Gibraltar company STM Fidecs Nominees Ltd. transferred its interest to him in August." Banks, along with property investor Richard Tice and media guru Andrew Wigmore, donated £4.3m to the group.

Banks said in May 2016 that his strategy during the Brexit campaign was to "bore the electorate into submission", in the hope that a low turnout would favour Brexit.

Following the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox on 16 June 2016, Banks commissioned a poll on whether it had affected public opinion on voting. Asked whether the wording of the poll was "tasteless", Banks said "I don't think so", adding that: "We were hoping to see what the effect of the event was. That is an interesting point of view, whether it would shift public opinion."

Post-referendum events Banks credited the success of Leave.EU to their hiring of Goddard Gunster and their subsequent adoption of "an American-style media approach." Days after the UK voted for Brexit, Banks said that Leave.EU would continue campaigning as a "rightwing Momentum", ensuring that politicians do not renege on their commitment to leave the EU.

Following the UK's vote to leave the EU, Banks emailed a note to journalists attacking his critics. Banks described the parliamentary Electoral Commission as "the legal division of the In campaign" and disagreed with their decision to enlist Vote Leave as the official campaign. Banks' response to the information commissioner, who in 2016 fined the campaign £50,000 for sending more than half a million unsolicited text messages, was a succinct "Whatever". In 2017, Banks viewed the Brexit vote as "a kind of halfhearted revolution" due to the fact that Theresa May, who supported Britain remaining in the EU, would end up betraying those who voted to leave.

There were questions as to the source of funds Banks used to support Brexit, and in November 2018 this was referred for criminal investigation. Banks denied any wrongdoing and stated that he welcomed the police investigation to put an end to the allegations.

The National Crime Agency investigated Leave.EU, Banks and Bilney, as well as other individuals and entities, following the referral of material from a second Electoral Commission investigation. The referral was announced amid concerns that Banks was not the true source of £8m donated to Leave.EU. In September 2019 the National Crime Agency said it had found no evidence of criminality after investigating a series of claims against the Brexit campaign group Leave.EU and Arron Banks. The NCA said: "It will therefore take no further action against Mr Banks, Ms Bilney, Better for the Country Ltd or Leave.EU in respect of this specific matter."

Banks said that Barclays closed his bank accounts in 2018, including business accounts, due to his political views.

In April 2019, a Channel 4 investigation also appeared to point to the conclusion that Banks's Leave.EU organisation faked migrant footage and photographs of "migrants" assaulting women. The photos were never used, but the fake video went viral. Banks accused Channel 4 News journalists of creating "fake news" themselves.

Leave.EU Liquidation As of April 2022, the Brexit campaign group Leave.EU has gone into liquidation with co-founder Arron Banks appearing to write off a loan worth more than £7m.

Links to Russian officials and Donald Trump campaign

From September 2015, Banks, along with Andy Wigmore, had multiple meetings with Russian officials posted at the Russian embassy in London. Banks was offered a chance to invest in Russian-owned gold or diamond mines; the deal involved funding from a Russian state-owned bank, and was announced 12 days after the Brexit referendum. Banks said he was defamed after comments Cadwalladr made about his relationship with the Russian state. Banks initially lost his case in the High Court but succeeded in the Court of Appeal. The Appeal Judges ruled he was due damages for a TED Talk given by Cadwalladr. While covered by a public interest defence when it was originally given, that defence fell away on 29 April 2020 when the Electoral Commission issued a statement that Banks did not commit any criminal offence. The Court of Appeal found views of the TED Talk after this date caused Banks serious harm, hence the damages. All other points of the appeal by Banks were dismissed.

This legal action carried out by Banks was considered by 19 press freedom organisations to be a strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) and abuse of law.

Greta Thunberg In August 2019 Banks was criticised by Labour MPs Tonia Antoniazzi and David Lammy after a tweet about the climate change activist Greta Thunberg as she set off on a two-week voyage in a zero carbon yacht. Banks tweeted: "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August". Tanja Bueltmann, founder of the EU Citizens' Champion campaign, also strongly criticised the tweet. Banks responded that he produced the tweet because he enjoys watching outrage, later stating: "Obviously I don't hope she encounters a freak yachting accident. I just enjoy watching the ludicrous tweeter mob following the next outrage."

Websites LibLabCon.com Banks gave significant funds to LibLabCon.com, a satirical website dedicated to attacking the three major parties. The website included jokes about the treatment of religious people by the Conservatives, claimed Chuka Umunna is "Labour's chief spokesman for tokenism" and described Amnesty International as an organisation which supports "loudmouth idiots chained to a radiator".

Westmonster

On 19 January 2017 (one day before Donald Trump's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States) Banks launched Westmonster alongside Michael Heaver, former press adviser to Nigel Farage. It is modelled on the right-wing US websites Breitbart News and the Drudge Report and claims to be "pro-Brexit, pro-Farage, pro-Trump, anti-establishment, anti-open borders, anti-corporatism". In the morning of 19 January, Westmonster's Twitter account had gained more than 2,500 followers.

Owners The official registered owners of the site are Heaver, who owns 50% of the website and is a daily editor, Paderina previously overstayed her visa but married merchant seaman Eric Butler. The three-month marriage was investigated by officials due to suspicions it was a sham.

In 2014, Banks reportedly lived in the village of Tockington near Bristol in a house with a "huge" Union Flag flying over the front lawn, and owned another house overlooking a game reserve near Pretoria in South Africa.

In 2020, Banks spent six months in Auckland, New Zealand after the country went into lockdown following the coronavirus pandemic. He has voiced his support for the leader of the New Zealand First Party, Winston Peters.

In popular culture Banks was portrayed by actor Lee Boardman in the 2019 HBO and Channel 4 produced drama entitled Brexit: The Uncivil War.