Weca mayoral elections: Arron Banks

On Thursday 1 May voters across the West of England will decide the next regional mayor.

You can find more information about the election and the candidates here.

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) is a local authority encompassing the council areas of Bristol, Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) and South Gloucestershire. The authority is led by the West of England Mayor.

Arron Banks is standing for the Reform UK party.

Businessman Arron Banks, who founded the Leave.EU campaign with current Reform MP Richard Tice, was previously one of the largest donors to UKIP.

He came to political prominence in 2014 when he announced a £1m pound donation to the party, then led by his friend and associate, Nigel Farage.

Before becoming involved in politics, Mr Banks founded Bristol-based insurance broker Brightside and later GoSkippy.

Mr Banks was born in Cheshire in 1966 and raised in South Africa and Basingstoke.

He ran Norwich Union's regional office in Bristol after in the 1990s and has stayed near the City ever since.

He now lives in a manor in Thornbury.

Mr Banks is no stranger to controversy, having ploughed millions of his own money into the Leave.EU campaign, he wrote a book about his experience during the referendum titled "The Bad Boys of Brexit."

Investigations into the sources of his wealth and claims of his relationship with the Russian state led to a high court battle with journalist Carole Cadwalladr in 2022.

He lost the case following a five-day hearing at the High Court, but was successful in partially reversing the decision at the Court of Appeal in 2023. Ms Cadwalladr was ordered to pay about £1.2m in legal costs.

He's already claimed that "Bristol is really corrupt," and that as Metro Mayor he intends to, "take the statues out of the river where they were dumped and put them back up and be damned proud of our history".

This is presumably in reference to the Edward Colston Statue, which was torn down during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and thrown in the harbour. It was later recovered and is currently in the possession of Bristol Museums.

Mr Banks is a big cricket fan and is the chair of Thornbury Cricket Club. He has also sponsored Gloucestershire County Cricket Club and is a supporter of the clubs plans to move away from their current home in Bristol to a purpose built facility in South Gloucestershire, close to the M4.

Speaking to BBC Radio Gloucestershire last year he said: "I'm a massive cricket fan, I see there's an opportunity for Gloucestershire, it's just spectacularly badly run."

His plan to take over the running of the club, however, appears to have been unsuccessful so far.

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