EXCLUSIVEIs the Bad Boy of Brexit Reform's most unreformed candidate? He's a millionaire who says older people have 'way too much money'. Now Arron Banks is standing to be a Farage mayor...
Arron Banks was watching a cricket match in South Africa with a glass of white wine in hand when Nigel Farage called to ask him if he would be prepared to stand as Reform's candidate for mayor of the West of England.
The proposal made sense on a number of grounds. Bristol is the city where Banks made his fortune as an insurance magnate and he and Farage had a relationship that went back to the heady days of the Brexit campaign when he had bankrolled Farage's then party, Ukip, to the tune of £1 million.
Banks didn't hesitate: 'When the boss phones you and says "You've got to do it", you've got to do it, right?'
But Farage may have cause to rue the day he recruited the author of The Bad Boys Of Brexit, Tales Of Mischief, Mayhem & Guerrilla Warfare In The EU Referendum Campaign, a scurrilous memoir of Banks's role in the Leave movement.
In a little-noticed interview in South Africa, where Banks has business interests, the maverick businessman said: 'We have had a few issues [in the] last couple of weeks with big political egos getting in the way of each other, but that is politics.'
It was a reference to the incendiary row sparked last month when the Mail published an interview I conducted with Reform MP Rupert Lowe, the multimillionaire former chairman of Southampton FC, in which he described Farage as the 'messianic' leader of a protest party.
Banks moved on to comment on Donald Trump and the global trade war caused by his tariffs. And what he said will surely alarm the Reform leadership.
Challenged about the chaos in the international markets, Banks said: 'Who gives a rat's arse about the stock market? I don't. It's just a weighing system for sentiment. Most asset prices in the world are over-priced.
Arron Banks, pictured, was watching a cricket match in South Africa with a glass of white wine in hand when Nigel Farage called to ask him if he would be prepared to stand as Reform's candidate for mayor of the West of England
Banks didn't hesitate: 'When the boss phones you and says "You've got to do it," you've got to do it, right?'
'If you are a kid in London, you can't possibly buy a house because it's ridiculously over-priced. Maybe we need a bit of harsh realignment. Generally, you have got older people, they have got way too much money and younger people have got absolutely nothing.
'Maybe it needs a damn good shake-up. Every so often the world needs to be taken by the scruff and given a bloody good shake. I think that is what Trump is doing.'
The assertion by Banks that older people have 'way too much money' will dismay Reform strategists.
An analysis of voting at the last election showed that 58 per cent of Reform voters are over the age of 50, while 30 per cent are over 60 – exactly the demographic that is likely to be most disturbed by Banks's words.
The interview couldn't surface at a worse time for Reform, coming as it does after the weeks of turmoil that followed Farage's decision to suspend Rupert Lowe, one of Reform's roster of five MPs.
With Reform set to fight the first parliamentary by-election since Labour's landslide victory last July in the Cheshire constituency of Runcorn on May 1, the last thing the party needs is a big beast like Banks going off-message – after all, he's not so much a loose cannon as a loose howitzer.
The contest was triggered by the resignation of the Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who pleaded guilty to assault following a late-night drinking session.
At the General Election, Reform came second in Runcorn, which is why Farage has high hopes of capturing the seat.
Banks, pictured, made his fortune as an insurance magnate and he and Farage had a relationship that went back to the heady days of the Brexit campaign when he bankrolled Farage's then party, Ukip, to the tune of £1 million
The interview couldn't surface at a worse time for Reform, coming as it does after the weeks of turmoil that followed Farage's decision to suspend Rupert Lowe, pictured, one of Reform's roster of five MPs.
Reform are also frontrunners in the battle for the West of England mayoralty, the post to be contested by Banks.
The race was dramatically thrown wide open last week when outgoing mayor Dan Norris, a Labour MP, was arrested over allegations of rape and child sex offences.
The crucial question is whether Banks's electoral performance will be damaged by the controversy that has enveloped the party since Lowe was ejected.
There had been simmering tensions between Farage and Lowe even before my bombshell interview brought things to a head.
The Great Yarmouth MP's hardline demands for the deportation of all illegal migrants alarmed the high command, and relations deteriorated further when Elon Musk, Trump's notorious 'First Buddy', declared that Farage 'doesn't have what it takes' to be Reform leader and floated Lowe as an alternative.
The row reached new heights when Reform chairman Zia Yusuf triggered what his colleagues have described as 'a nuclear solution' by calling in the police over his allegation that he had been threatened with physical violence by Lowe last December.
I'm told that Farage and his allies were appalled by Yusuf's decision to involve the police, not least because it triggered hundreds, if not thousands, of resignations of party members.
Yusuf is now expected to pay a heavy price for the chaos which has engulfed the party since the interview. Some say he could be out of a job after the May elections.
The Great Yarmouth MP's hardline demands for the deportation of all illegal migrants alarmed the Reform high command, and relations deteriorated further when Elon Musk, Trump's notorious 'First Buddy', declared that Farage 'doesn't have what it takes' to be Reform leader and floated Lowe as an alternative
The row reached new heights when Reform chairman Zia Yusuf, pictured, triggered what his colleagues have described as 'a nuclear solution' by calling in the police over his allegation that he had been threatened with physical violence by Lowe last December
Farage and his allies were reportedly appalled by Yusuf's decision to involve the police, not least because it triggered hundreds, if not thousands, of resignations of party members
Yusuf, a businessman who gave £200,000 to Reform last year, was handpicked by Farage to be the party's chairman, with a brief to professionalise the party.
Whether his attempts to do so have worked, we will see on May 1, which is a doubly significant date as it is also the day county council elections will be held across the country.
At the General Election, Farage admitted Reform had problems with some 'bad apple' candidates over racist and homophobic comments.
Last month, however, he claimed Reform had turned a corner: 'We've been vetting, I bet, to a standard that no other party has ever done before for local council elections.'
But has anything changed? Last week, the party suspended Buckinghamshire candidate Miriam Thomas after offensive social media posts came to light.
A day earlier, it had emerged that Stephen Hartley, who was standing as a Reform candidate in the Oxfordshire County Council election, had defended serial paedophile Jimmy Savile.
In a social media post in 2022 Hartley said Savile was 'an innocent man and a working-class hero' and even suggested the paedophile was his role model.
So what of the Reform candidate in the Runcorn parliamentary by-election? The party's hopes rest on former Tory councillor Sarah Pochin. Yet, bizarrely, within hours of being selected, Pochin mysteriously deleted her X/Twitter account.
At the General Election, Farage admitted Reform had problems with some 'bad apple' candidates over racist and homophobic comments
Unfortunately for her, I've seen some of the tweets she erased. These include photos of her posing with drag queens who had participated in 'Drag Queen Story Hour', book-readings for children in primary schools, that are bound to incense many Reform members.
Another tweet, dating back to her days as Tory Mayor of Cheshire East in May 2022, referred to her 'pleasure' in supporting an event for Afghan and Syrian refugees who have settled in the county.
Such a view is unlikely to chime with members of a party which sees immigration control as a key element of its political strategy.
Last year Pochin, who has served as a magistrate for two decades, was even criticised by Labour for her leniency towards a single mother who was more than twice the drink-drive limit at Christmas when her car collided with a fence.
The defendant, who appeared at Crewe Magistrates Court last December, escaped with a fine after Pochin told her: 'No one was hurt. Do not be too hard on yourself. It is what it is.'
A Reform spokesman said of the case: 'Having been a magistrate for 20 years, Sarah believes in the power of second chances.'
There's no doubt many members of Reform object to the way Lowe was treated. The newly formed campaign group Independent Britain, which is made up of around 200 former Reform members and candidates who quit in protest over Yusuf and Farage's leadership style, is campaigning in the Runcorn by-election for the Tory candidate Sean Houlston.
Meanwhile Yusuf's allegedly heavy-handed management of the party is estranging many grassroots members. At least a dozen local chairmen have quit over the conduct of the party's leadership in recent weeks.
Meanwhile Yusuf's allegedly heavy-handed management of the party is reportedly estranging many grassroots Reform members
A Reform UK spokesman said the resignations amounted to 2 per cent of its branch chairmen. 'Our understanding is that the other parties have much higher churn than that.'
The spokesman also claimed that Yusuf's decision to report Lowe to the police on the very same day that my interview with him appeared in the Mail was 'coincidental'.
However, only yesterday, Yusuf's problems continued to mount. Reform's former London Mayoral candidate Howard Cox told the Guido Fawkes political news website: 'My inboxes are now flooded with grassroots Reformers who are incredibly upset and feel that their political optimism for our country has been betrayed.'
The elections on May 1 represent a golden opportunity for Reform to establish itself as a serious alternative to the Tories.
Labour has lost 37 councillors in by-elections since the General Election. The Conservatives have gained 23 and Reform 13.
If Nigel Farage's candidates don't do considerably better next month, he may rue the day his chairman set the rozzers on Rupert Lowe.
