Arron Banks

Arron Fraser Andrew Banks (born 22 March 1966), also known as Aaron Banks is a British businessman and political donor. He is the co-founder (with Richard Tice) of the Leave.EU campaign.^[2] A former Conservative Party donor, he came to prominence in October 2014 when he donated £1 million to the UK Independence Party^[3] and has since donated in total £6 million to a variety of anti-European Union campaigns,^[4] such as the cross-party Grassroots Out.

Early life and career

Banks was born in Northwich, Cheshire.^[5] He spent the first part of his childhood in South Africa and returned to the UK to attend a private school in Berkshire before being expelled for “an accumulation of offences”, including the sale of lead stolen from school building roofs^[6] and “high-spirited bad behaviour”.

Banks married young and was offered a junior job at Lloyd's of London. By the age of 27, he was running a division of Norwich Union. He spent a year working for Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company of Warren Buffett.^[7]

He is a father of five and married to Russian Ekaterina Paderina,^[1] who is reported to have received help to remain in the UK from Mike Hancock while he was an MP.^[8]

In August 2012, Banks was arrested on suspicion of harassment, but not charged, and was issued with a controversial "prevention of harassment" notice and words of advice after harassment allegations by 33-year-old Jo Featherby. After Featherby had complained to the police, she was dismissed from the insurance company GoSkippy — linked to Banks's firm Brightside. Featherby commenced employment tribunal proceedings against GoSkippy, alleging unfair dismissal. She later agreed an out-of-court settlement.^[9]

Business career

Banks was the chief executive (CEO) of Southern Rock Insurance Company in 2014, which underwrites insurance policies for the website GoSkippy.com which was founded by Banks.^[10][11] He previously co-founded Brightside Group in 2005, and was its CEO from June 2011 to June 2012, at which time the company was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).^[12] 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.^[1][13]

He was previously CEO of AIM-listed Manx Financial Group from April 2008 to February 2009, and CEO of Group Direct Limited.^[14]

According to Companies House records, Banks has set up 37 different companies using slight variations of his name. The names used by Banks are Aron Fraser Andrew Banks, Arron Andrew Fraser Banks, Arron Fraser Andrew Banks and Arron Banks. The profiles for the first three names all use the same date of birth but register different lists of companies. When asked by The Guardian about this, he declined to answer questions on the topic.^[15] In 2016, the leaked Panama Papers indicated Banks was the shareholder of British Virgin Islands company PRI Holdings Limited, which was the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited.^[16] However, a spokesperson for Banks has denied any links to the lawyer named and denies that Banks was involved with the Papers.^[17]

Banks has stated that he has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and a licence to mine in Lesotho.^[1][18]

Banks has an estimated wealth of £100 million.^[1]

Political career and donations

Banks was previously a Conservative Party donor but announced in October 2014 he would instead donate £1 million to the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Banks said that he had changed party allegiance because he agrees with UKIP's policies and their view that the European Union "is holding the UK back" as it's a "closed shop for bankrupt countries".^[19][20] Banks has been described as the "leading figure" behind the anti-EU Grassroots Out and Leave.EU,^[21] as well as the official Vote Leave campaign.^[22][23]

He signalled his intention to stand for the UK Independence Party in the constituency of Thornbury and Yate at the 2015 general election,^[24] but the candidate chosen by the party was Russ Martin, who came third.

Conservative Party donations

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".^[25]

A UKIP source told The Guardian that Banks had also loaned £75,417 to Thornbury and Yate Conservative Party through Panacea Finance (his former company) in September 2007, registered on the Electoral Commission and to be paid back by 2022. However, Companies House records show that Banks resigned from the company in September 2005; therefore it was considered questionable as to whether Banks was controlling the company at the time, or whether he was "using the firm as a 'proxy donor'", according to The Guardian.^[15]

Donations to UKIP and Eurosceptic organisations

Banks defected to the UK Independence Party in 2014, an anti-European Union political party. Claiming that Britain's EU membership "is like having a first class ticket on the Titanic", Banks said that "Economically, remaining in the EU is unsustainable."^[26][27] Labour MP Michael Dugher said that Banks' defection showed that "David Cameron is haemorrhaging support and his authority is ebbing away. He can't control his party, who clearly have no confidence in his leadership. And once again we see that UKIP are reliant on Tory money as well as Tory policy and Tory politicians, putting paid to the idea that they stand up for working people."^[28][29]

Despite Vote Leave and Leave.EU both claiming that leaving the EU would negatively impact the NHS by opening it up to private services, Banks has pledged his support for privatising the NHS^[30] and claimed his policy was to "bore the electorate into submission", in the hope that a low turnout would favour Brexit.^[31][32]

Upon Banks' defection to UKIP, Conservative MP William Hague called him "somebody we haven't heard of". In response, Banks increased his donation from £100,000 to £1 million, saying: "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. So in light of that I have decided to give £1 million."^[20] This donation was one of the largest sums of money ever received by UKIP.^[33]

In April 2016, Private Eye revealed 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."^[23] Banks, along with property investor Richard Tice and media guru Andrew Wigmore, donated £4.3m to the group.^[23]

Brexit controversies

Banks threatened UKIP's only MP Douglas Carswell with deselection in September 2015 when it emerged that Carswell supported the rival Vote Leave campaign, as opposed to the Leave.EU campaign funded by Banks himself,^[34] describing Carswell as "borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in".^[35]

During the referendum campaign, Banks threatened to sue the official Vote Leave campaign's candidacy as the official spokesperson for the "Leave" vote in the 2016 EU referendum, which may have possibly delayed the vote by two months. However, Banks since rejected this and stated that he would not pursue a judicial review any further.^[36] Banks has also claimed that Vote Leave were deliberately lying when they claimed that the UK sends £350 million to the European Union, claiming this does not take into consideration the rebate which the UK receives from the EU, and that the £350 million is not actually sent to the EU headquarters in Brussels.^[37]

Following the murder of Jo Cox, Arron Banks controversially commissioned a poll on whether her murder had affected public opinion on voting. Asked whether the wording of the poll was "tasteless", Banks said "I don't think so",^[38] 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."^[39]

Brexit aftermath

In the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the EU, Banks emailed a note to journalists attacking his critics. Banks described the Electoral Commission as "the legal division of the In campaign" and disagreed with their decision to enlist Vote Leave as the official campaign. Also, Banks' response to the information commissioner, who last month fined the campaign £50,000 for sending more than half a million unsolicited text messages, was a succinct "Whatever".^[40][41]

Banks credits the success of Leave.EU to their hiring of Goddard Gunster and their subsequent adoption of "an American-style media approach". Banks said, "What [Goddard Gunster] said early on was 'facts don’t work' and that's it. The remain campaign featured fact, fact, fact, fact, fact. It just doesn’t work. You have got to connect with people emotionally. It’s the Trump success." Following the campaign, 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. Banks also considered forming a new political party.^[42]

Statement on possibility of leaving UKIP

In September 2016, following Banks' statement that UKIP would be "dead in the water" if Diane James did not become leader,^[43] he said that he would leave UKIP if Steven Woolfe was prevented from running for leader and two other senior members remained in the party: "If Neil Hamilton and Douglas Carswell [UKIP's only MP] remain in the party, and the NEC decide that Steven Woolfe cannot run for leader, I will be leaving Ukip".^[44]

Attack website

Banks is a supporter of and has given significant funds to LibLabCon.com, a satirical website dedicated to attacking the three major parties. The website includes jokes about the treatment of religious people by the Conservatives, claims Chuka Umunna is "Labour's chief spokesman for tokenism" and described Amnesty International as an organisation which supports "loudmouth idiots chained to a radiator".^[45] UKIP sources insist that Banks does not write the material on the website. The website was formerly registered to Banks at the address of his firm, GoSkippy in Bristol, but now appears to be registered to an address in Godalming, Surrey.^[46]

Despite receiving the support of Banks and UKIP policy chief Tim Aker, UKIP told the Daily Mail the website is not linked to them.^[46] Bloggers4UKIP issued a statement, saying:

The Daily Mail and the Times are part of the anti-UKIP campaign. They are too closely involved to be just followers, they are active players in the campaign to protect the status quo. They have invested a lot of time and money buying influence with the Tories and they don't want to see that investment wasted by a party that they have no control over.^[47]

Tax avoidance

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.^[33] 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.^[48]

Asked if his companies paid full corporation tax, Banks "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."^[33] One of the UK businesses of which Banks is director, Rock Services Ltd, had a turnover of £19.7m last year and paid corporation tax of £12,000. The company deducted £19.6m in "administrative expenses", and the main activity appears to be "recharge of goods and services" with Southern Rock Insurance Company.^[33] Southern Rock Insurance states on its website that it underwrites policies for the customers of GoSkippy.com, which is run by Banks. Because it is based in Gibraltar, there is little information available on it. Rock Services and Southern Rock Insurance's ultimate holding company is Rock Holdings Ltd, a company based on the Isle of Man.^[33] Banks has also been a "substantial" shareholder in STM Fidecs, of which Leave.EU is a susidiary; the company claims to be specialising in "international wealth protection", maximising tax efficiencies for entrepreneurs and expatriates and of "structuring international groups, particularly separating and relocating intellectual property and treasury functions to low- or no-tax jurisdictions".^[49]

Panama Papers

Following the release of the Panama Papers, The Guardian wrote that "Banks, who has given Ukip more than £1m and is spearheading the anti-EU referendum campaign, appears as the shareholder of a BVI company called PRI Holdings Limited. Shares from PRI were also transferred to Elizabeth Bilney, the chief executive of Leave.EU. PRI Holdings is in turn the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited, which is a British Virgin Islands company managed in Gibraltar."^[50]

References