Reform’s decision to nominate Arron Banks as heir candidate for West of England mayor has raised eyebrows among his many critics – one of whom is Isabel Oakeshott, partner of Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice. Indeed, she once accused Banks and his colleague Andy Wigmore in a legal statement of “acting as agents of influence of the Russian state”.
The right wing journalist and the Brexiteer businessman who funded Leave.EU were once pals – indeed, Oakeshott ghostwrote Banks’ God-awful memoir Bad Boys of Brexit in 2016. But by 2018 she was disillusioned after unearthing what she calls evidence of his close contact with Russia during the referendum campaign.
She wrote that Banks and Wigmore had been “shamelessly used by the Russians. Perhaps the Englishmen did not mind. As always, the Kremlin’s agenda was to weaken western democracies by fuelling political and social division. And in these two incredibly well-connected men it had highly valuable – and surprisingly willing – tools.”
She continued: “Banks and Wigmore genuinely sympathised… with some of Putin’s political views. Banks, after all, is married to a Russian. He believes there is currently an anti-Russian witch-hunt.
“During the referendum campaign, he and Wigmore were happy to disseminate some pro-Russian views both via Leave.EU and less openly. The Kremlin must have been delighted… The relationship between Banks, Wigmore and the Russian embassy was part of a much wider Russian hybrid warfare campaign against the UK, America and our allies.”
Banks and Wigmore have always denied being used – knowingly or unknowingly – by Russia. But what does it say about Reform and Nigel Farage that a man named by the deputy leader’s partner as a “surprisingly willing tool” of the Kremlin should be its candidate for such an important post?
Meanwhile, Banks appears to be doing his best to lose the May 1 election before the campaign has even started. His patch includes Bristol, and when a local website reminded its readers that Banks had once described the city centre as “looking like downtown Mogadishu”, he doubled down, posting on X: “I stand by it! We need controlled immigration & integration in the UK. A lot of the crime in Bristol is coming from the Somalians [sic] community who haven’t integrated into British life. The streets of Bristol like many big cities have become unsafe!”
