arron banks
carole cadwalladr legal suppression bs slapp
Arron Banks - Wikipedia UK CRM
SEE BREXIT FARAGE
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CADWALLADR
:{:{Anthony Barnett wrote in the blog of The New York Review of Books about Cadwalladr's articles in The Observer, which reported malpractice by campaigners for Brexit, and the illicit funding of Vote Leave, in the 2016 EU membership referendum.}:
She has also reported on alleged links between Nigel Farage, the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election that has been investigated in the United States.[10] Regarding the Trump presidential campaign allegation, although the full report remains unpublished, the Mueller investigation "identified numerous links between the Russian government and the Trump Campaign".[11]
Before Cambridge Analytica closed operations in 2018, the company took legal action against The Observer for the claims made in Cadwalladr's articles.[12]}:
:{:{In April 2019, Cadwalladr gave a 15-minute TED talk about the links between Facebook and Brexit, entitled "Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy".[13] It was one of the opening talks of TED's 2019 conference and Cadwalladr called out the 'Gods of Silicon Valley – Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Jack Dorsey' by name. She accused Facebook of "breaking" democracy, a moment described as a 'truth bomb'.[14]}:
TED's curator Chris Anderson invited Mark Zuckerberg to come and give his response, an offer he declined. Anderson later listed the talk as one of the best ones of 2019.[15] According to Cadwalladr, the founders of Facebook and Google were sponsoring the conference and the co-founder of Twitter was speaking at it.[16] She summarized her speech in an article in The Observer: "As things stood, I didn't think it was possible to have free and fair elections ever again. That liberal democracy was broken. And they had broken it." The speech was applauded.[17][18] Some of the "tech giants" criticized the talk for "factual inaccuracies", but when invited to specify them, they did not respond.[16][18]}:
Cadwalladr criticised the takeover of The Observer by Tortoise Media. In February 2025, the Press Gazette reported that Tortoise Media had declined to renew her freelance contract, despite its agreement with the National Union of Journalists that all freelance contracts would be renewed for at least one year.[19]
Banks v Cadwalladr libel case
Arron Banks initiated a libel action against Cadwalladr on 12 July 2019.
:{:{Banks had objected to her claim, notably in her TED talk,[20] that he had lied about "his relationship with the Russian government}:".[21] According to The Guardian, "Banks's lawyers argued this meant there were strong grounds to believe he would assist the interests of the Russian government, against those of the British government, in exchange for that money." Cadwalladr's lawyers had argued this meant there were reasonable grounds to investigate. However, the judge concluded that, in context, the TED talk and the related tweet meant that "on more than one occasion Mr Banks told untruths about a secret relationship he had with the Russian government in relation to acceptance of foreign funding of electoral campaigns in breach of the law on such funding".[22]
The judge had earlier cautioned that "broadcasts and public speeches should not be interpreted as though they were formal written texts",[23] and "emphasised that the ordinary reader or listener would not minutely analyse possible interpretations of words like a libel lawyer".[22] Cadwalladr said of the judge's "meaning" that she had never said the words and not claimed in any article that Banks had accepted funding.: “These are not words I have ever said. On the contrary, I’ve always been very clear that there is no evidence that Banks accepted Russian funding”.[24] She described the experience of having to defend the meaning of words she'd never said, as "kafkaesque": ^[25]}:
Press Gazette, the UK journalism industry paper, said "That she had to face this battle alone for four years reflects poorly on the two publishers involved in the case: Guardian News and Media and TED, a non-profit organisation in the US that is dedicated to the spread of ideas." ^[26]
In a High Court ruling on 13 June 2022, Banks' case was dismissed: the judge concluded that Cadwalladr had a reasonable belief that her comments were in the public interest.[27] Press freedom groups had expressed alarm at the lawsuit,[28] describing the case as a SLAPP suit “intended to silence Cadwalladr's courageous investigative journalism”;[28] however, the judge said that it was neither fair nor apt to describe it as such, because Cadwalladr had “no defence of truth”, and her defence of public interest had “succeeded only in part”.[29] On 24 June 2022, the High Court granted Banks leave to appeal on a question of law relating to the "serious harm" test.[30]
In February 2023, the Court of Appeal rejected two of Banks’ challenges, but ruled in his favour that continuing publication of the April 2019 TED Talk, after the Electoral Commission published a report on 29 April 2020 that found no evidence of Banks breaking the law in relation to campaign donations, had caused "serious harm" to Banks' reputation. The Court ordered that damages should be assessed for the harm incurred between 29 April 2020 and the date of the High Court ruling in June 2022.[31][32]
Press Gazette, the trade industry paper, said: "It has all been a huge price to pay for a freelance journalist who has been attacked over a statement that stemmed from investigative journalism into the activities of the biggest political donor in UK political history. And it is a judgment that means Banks, and others like him, will be protected in future by a sort of cloak of invisibility. When the risks are so high, most publishers will choose less risky targets for their investigations." It urged the newspaper industry to support her because of the chilling effects of the ruling: "And it is now beholden on all news publishers to support Cadwalladr in any future appeal to the Supreme Court because the judgment against her threatens to gag us all."[33]
On 28 April 2023, Cadwalladr was ordered by the court to pay Banks £35,000 in damages by 12 May 2023.[34] She was further ordered to pay more than £1m in costs.[35] In May 2023 Cadwalladr unsuccessfully sought permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against the costs order.[36][37] In November 2023, Cadwalladr's lawyers announced that they would be taking the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.[38]
Other
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In 2016, the leaked Panama Papers indicated Banks along with Elizabeth Bilney were shareholders of British Virgin Islands company PRI Holdings Limited, which was the sole shareholder of African Strategic Resources Limited.[29] However, a spokesperson for Banks has denied any links to the lawyer named and denies that Banks was involved with the Papers.[30] Banks has stated that he has a controlling interest in a diamond mine in Kimberley, South Africa, and a licence to mine in Lesotho.[23][31] 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.[32]
In January 2015, one estimate of his wealth was £100 million.[23] In November 2017, an estimate of £250 million was mentioned.[33]
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Banks was previously a Conservative Party donor but in October 2014 decided to donate £100,000 to UKIP. In response to comments from William Hague that Banks had not been a major Conservative donor in past years, and that Hague had never heard of Banks, Banks increased his donation to £1 million to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), 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".[37][21][38] Banks has been described as the "leading figure" behind the anti-EU Grassroots Out and Leave.EU campaigns.[39]
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Relationship with Eurosceptic organisations
In October 2014, Banks donated £1 million to the UK Independence Party[1][51] and has since raised the equivalent of $11 million for the party. Conservative MP William Hague had called Banks "somebody we haven't heard of" following his defection to UKIP.[1] 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."[38] This donation was one of the largest sums of money ever received by UKIP.[34] Banks also funded Leave.EU by the equivalent of $5 million, and has been seen as the financial backer of the Brexit campaign.[52]
Banks threatened Douglas Carswell with deselection in September 2015 when it emerged that Carswell supported Vote Leave, as opposed to the Leave.EU campaign funded by Banks,[53] describing Carswell as "borderline autistic with mental illness wrapped in", according to The Huffington Post.[54]
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."[55] Banks, along with property investor Richard Tice and media guru Andrew Wigmore, donated £4.3m to the group.[55]
Banks credits the success of Leave.EU to their hiring of Goddard Gunster and their subsequent adoption of "an American-style media approach."[56]
Possibility of "right-wing Momentum"
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Links to Russian officials and Donald Trump campaign
See also: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and Russian interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum
From September 2015, Banks, along with Andy Wigmore, had multiple meetings with Russian officials posted at the Russian embassy in London.[8] In November 2015, Alexander Yakovenko, the Russian ambassador, introduced Banks to a Russian businessman, which was followed by other business proposals on the part of Russians.[7][80] 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.[8][7] It is not clear if Banks invested.
For two years, Banks said his only contacts with the Russian government consisted of one "boozy lunch" with the ambassador. After The Observer reported that he had had multiple meetings at which he had been offered lucrative business deals, Banks told a parliamentary inquiry into fake news he had had "two or three" meetings. In July 2018 when pressed by The New York Times, he said there had been a fourth meeting. The Observer has seen evidence that suggests his Leave.EU campaign team met with Russian embassy officials as many as 11 times in the run-up to the EU referendum and in the two months beyond.[6]
It has been reported that on 12 November 2016, Banks had a meeting with president-elect Donald Trump in Trump Tower and that upon return to London, Banks had lunch with the Russian ambassador where they discussed the Trump visit.[8]
In a defamation claim against the journalist Carole Cadwalladr, Banks was awarded £35,000 in damages and 60% of his costs.[81] Banks said he was defamed after comments Cadwalladr made about his relationship with the Russian state.[82] 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.[83] In 2023, following Banks' partial success in an appeal, Cadwalladr was ordered to pay about £1.2 million in legal costs; she set up a crowdfunding site to help pay these costs.[84][85]
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.[86]
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,[87] 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."[87][88]
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".[89]
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.[90][91] 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".[92][93] In the morning of 19 January, Westmonster's Twitter account had gained more than 2,500 followers.[94]
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/top-brexit-backer-passed-trump-team-info-to-russians.html
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RUSSIA INVESTIGATION JUNE 10, 2018
Top Brexit Backer Passed Trump Transition Team Info to Russians
By Chas Danner
Leave.EU donor Arron Banks at a press conference in November 2015.
Concerns about Russia’s election meddling — in the U.K. — reached new heights on Saturday after leaked emails revealed extensive links between one of the top backers of a pro-Brexit campaign and Russian officials. The Observer and Sunday Times of London obtained the some 40,000 emails sent by millionaire businessman Arron Banks, the chief financial backer of U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage’s Leave.EU campaign, and Andy Wigmore, Leave.EU’s director of communications.
The emails show show that Banks had previously undisclosed meetings with Russia’s U.K. ambassador (which were set up by an alleged Russian spy), and had made a previously undisclosed visit to Moscow at the peak of the Brexit campaign. Banks and Wigmore were also offered, at one point, a business deal involving several Russian goldmines that could have been worth a fortune for the men, according to the documents. There is a Trump connection, as the Sunday Times reports that Banks admitted that, months after the Brexit referendum, “he handed over phone numbers for members of Trump’s transition team to Russian officials”— though it’s not yet clear whose info he handed over, or what became of it.
Carole Cadwalladr
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@carolecadwalla
Replying to @carolecadwalla
Who's @Arron_banks? He's the Bad Boy of Brexit seen here to left of Trump. In depth interview here. "Not a single penny of money has been put into Brexit," he told me. Though I never actually asked him that..https://yyy.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/02/arron-banks-interview-brexit-ukip-far-right-trump-putin-russia …
4:02 PM - Jun 9, 2018
4:02 PM - Jun 9, 2018
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Banks has donated £1.3 million to the UKIP since 2014, and contributed £6 million to Leave.EU. Both he and Wigmore have denied they played any role in helping Russia influence the Brexit referendum, or that Russia was even trying to do so. Yet starting in 2015, Russia’s ambassador to the U.K., Alexander Yakovenko, worked to develop a relationship with Banks and his associate, successfully inviting them to multiple events as the Brexit campaign was underway. At one meeting, they were introduced to Russian mining magnate Siman Povarenkin in regard to the potential goldmine deal. Another meeting may have happened just three days after Banks, Wigmore, and Farage became the first Britons to meet with President-elect Trump on November 12, 2016. That was hardly their first foray into Trump World, either, as noted by the Observer:
[Yakovenko’s] invitations continued after the [Brexit] referendum during the time in which Banks, Wigmore and Farage began travelling regularly to America to support Donald Trump’s bid for the presidency, according to the documents.
Ambassador Yakovenko met Wigmore and Banks on 19 August, the day Steve Bannon became Trump’s campaign manager. It was days before they travelled to Mississippi with Nigel Farage for a rally on 25 August at which Donald Trump introduced him to the crowds as “Mr Brexit”. He said a Trump presidency would be “Brexit plus”.
Per the Sunday Times, Wigmore said the third meeting with Yakovenko “came three days after the meeting with Trump, but this has not been confirmed,” and that “Yakovenko is said to have asked Banks for contact details for Trump’s transition team, and was given a number.”
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, left, listens to United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage speak during a campaign rally at the Mississippi Coliseum on August 24, 2016 in Jackson, Mississippi. Photo: Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
Farage, the UKIP and Leave.EU leader who used Trump-like tactics to drum up populist support for Brexit, has said that he admires Russian President Vladimir Putin more than any other world leader, but it’s not clear if he was aware of Banks and Wigmore’s Kremlin ties.Banks — whose wife is from Russia — has been defiant in response to the leaked emails, telling the Sunday Times, “I had two boozy lunches with the Russian ambassador and another cup of tea with him. Bite me.” Though he and Wigmore reportedly invited Yakovenko to the results-watching party at Leave.EU’s headquarters after the referendum (he declined), Banks also echoed President Trump in dismissing any notion of collusion, claiming that, “It’s a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump.”
But as Russia expert and Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum pointed out in a Twitter thread on Sunday, the leaked documents offer good demonstration of how the Kremlin tries to support European political movements that are aligned with its interests:
Russians don’t usually give direct funding, [with] the exception being Marine Le Pen’s National Front [in France]. Instead, they offer lucrative business deals to high-ranking members of the movement. There is some evidence of this in the case of the Austrian Freedom Party, and also the Italian Northern League. Important point: It’s not illegal, or not necessarily. It doesn’t break laws on foreign funding for political parties, if they exist. Russian offers of lucrative private deals could be used to make politicians ‘pro-Russian,’ even if those deals somehow don’t work out. That may have been the point of that Trump Tower Moscow negotiation, though we don’t know enough about it. Of course, if the deals come through, then the money can be used to finance a political campaign — legally.
Banks and Wigmore will now face questions from a parliamentary committee starting on Tuesday, where more of Leave.EU’s shadows may start to receive some sunlight, as the Guardian notes:
MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport committee, who have the protection of parliamentary privilege, had been expected to focus on Banks’s links to Russia, including the provenance of his wealth. He is also subject to an Electoral Commission inquiry into the “true source” of his donations. Leave.EU has been fined £70,000 for accounting irregularities. The organisation’s chief executive, Liz Bilney, another Banks associate, is under police investigation.
Whatever happens next, the leaked emails reveal more evidence of Russia’s efforts to drive political upheaval in the U.K. and U.S., as well as how influential figures on both sides of the Atlantic have hardly spurned their advances.
nix les constantly, and has been exposed a number of times; denies involvemnt in brexit:
open democ no doc links
DARK MONEY INVESTIGATIONS
Revealed: Arron Banks Brexit campaign's 'secret' meetings with Cambridge Analytica
Leaked emails show Leave.EU misled parliament and UK regulator about meetings with controversial Trump-linked firm – where they discussed targeting British voters. Steve Bannon was included in correspondence.
Peter GeogheganJenna Corderoy
Peter Geoghegan
Jenna Corderoy
19 December 2018
Arron Banks’s Brexit campaign discussed ‘micro-targeting’ British voters during previously undisclosed meetings with Cambridge Analytica, openDemocracy can reveal, raising fresh concerns about ‘psychographic warfare technology’ used to target voters in the run up to the 2016 EU referendum.
Leave.EU told the UK Information Commissioner’s Office that it held only four meetings with Cambridge Analytica. Earlier this year, Banks also claimed to MPs that his Leave.EU campaign only “had two or three meetings” with Cambridge Analytica and had never paid the data analytics firms for any work.
But emails obtained by openDemocracy suggest that Banks’s Brexit campaign had additional meetings with the controversial data analytics firm, which they did not disclose either to parliament or to the information regulator, and in which they discussed in detail how to target British voters.
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was included in some of the email correspondence seen by openDemocracy, as was a former UKIP party secretary linked to Robert Mercer, the Trump-supporting hedge fund billionaire who controlled Cambridge Analytica.
Topics discussed at these meetings included fundraising for Leave.EU and how to build sophisticated target audiences for pro-Brexit adverts on Facebook,similar to those used by the Trump campaign.
In evidence presented to the Information Commissioner, Leave.EU said that its final meeting with Cambridge Analytica took place on January 8 2016. But later that month, an email seen by openDemocracy discussed Banks’s campaign “using [Cambridge Analytica] and staging the contract.”
Damian Collins, chair of the UK parliament’s fake news inquiry, said: “I can’t think of any sort of relationship between a supplier and an organisation which would involve so many meetings over such a long time which neither side regards as working together, and which neither expect to get paid for it, and both sides seem so adamant in denying.”
Data protection expert Paul-Olivier Dehaye said that the email exchanges suggested that Leave.EU had “used psychographic warfare technology” to target voters based on psychological traits across a range of social media in the run-up to the Brexit vote.
The undisclosed meetings raise fresh questions about Banks’s Brexit campaign. The National Crime Agency is currently investigating whether Banks is the “true source” of more than £8m worth of donations made in his name to Leave groups.
Cambridge Analytica was closed down earlier this year after being accused of harvesting data from of tens of millions of Facebook users’ data and employing “black ops” to influence elections around the world. openDemocracy last month revealed that Banks’s Leave.EU operation built up a database of tens of millions of UK voters ahead of the 2016 referendum.
Undisclosed meetings – and ‘Target Audience Analysis’
Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica held an introductory meeting on October 23 2015. The final meeting between the two camps took place on January 8 2016, according to a recent ICO report that found “no evidence of a working relationship between CA and Leave.EU proceeding beyond this initial phase.”
But there were additional meetings between Cambridge Analytica and Leave.EU that were not disclosed to the information regulator.
On October 30, 2015 a Cambridge Analytica staffer sent an email saying that “two members of your data team will be at our offices for an exchange session on Tuesday”. Among the email’s recipients were Arron Banks, his associate Andy Wigmore, Leave.EU chief Liz Bilney, Cambridge Analytica’s Alexander Nix and Steve Bannon.
On December 5 2015, Julian Wheatland, then chief operating officer of Cambridge Analytica’s UK parent company SCL group, wrote to Leave.EU’s chief Liz Bilney saying “thanks for coming in to see us yesterday.”
Wheatland says that Cambridge Analytica will conduct Target Audience Analysis (TAA) on behalf Leave.EU. TAA involves the identifying groups that exist in society, and targeting messages that resonate with them. Unlike traditional advertising, the key in TAA is that individuals self-identify their psychological traits, often through their online behaviour, says data expert Paul-Olivier Dehaye.
SCL and Cambridge Analytica were involved in TAA everywhere from Afghanistan to the successful 2016 Trump campaign.
Screen Shot 2018-12-18 at 19.46.26.png
Wheatland told Leave.EU CEO Bilney that Cambridge Analytica company would “start digital outreach and a program of voter engagement and fundraising,” primarily on Facebook.
“[F]ollowing our discussion yesterday on the way you are using Facebook… it occured to me that you may like us to take over you (sic) current list-building activity in the interim,” Wheatland wrote.
The email also suggests a meeting was due to take place “with Arron (Banks) on Tuesday”. The following Tuesday was December 8 2015.
These were not the only proposed meetings discussed by Leave.EU and Cambridge Analytica staff not disclosed to the Information Commissioner.
‘Staging the contract’
On January 25 2016, Matthew Richardson, a lawyer and former UKIP party secretary with links to the Mercers, wrote to Wheatland saying that Banks and Wigmore have asked “if they can reschedule for Friday”. Steve Bannon is also included in this email.
Screen Shot 2018-12-18 at 19.59.14.png
Richardson, a former executive director of the rightwing Young Britons Foundation, has been cited as the person who introduced Leave.EU to Cambridge Analytica. According to the Guardian, Andy Wigmore said: “We had a guy called Matthew Richardson who’d known Nigel for a long time and he’s always looked after the Mercers”.
Richardson also suggests that Leave.EU intended to hire Cambridge Analytica. “[Banks and Wigmore] would like to talk about using the service and staging the contract, so that the bulk of it is done after the Electoral Commission designation,” he wrote.
Banks and Wigmore have previously said that Leave.EU decided not to hire Cambridge Analytica and that only preliminary work was done, for free. Wigmore told the Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr that the Mercers – who backed Trump and controlled Cambridge Analytica – had been “happy to help” Leave.EU.
There are hints of further meetings, too. On December 17, Leave.EU’s head of research Pierre Shepherd wrote to Cambridge Analytica staff asking “do you still plan to come next week?”. There was no record of a meeting around this time in the evidence given by Leave.EU to the Information Commissioner.
Screen Shot 2018-12-18 at 20.02.56.png
The UKIP connection
Earlier this year, Brittany Kaiser, former Cambridge Analytica’s business development director, said the work with Leave.EU involved analysis of data provided by UKIP. Banks has denied this.
Emails seen by openDemocracy suggest Cambridge Analytica sought to access raw data about UKIP supporters collected by academics. On October 29 2015, a Cambridge Analytica staffer wrote to Matthew Richardson asking “if you can connect us to Matthew Goodwin, who is the academic that conducted the referendum survey with your members? He should have the raw data from that, which will be very helpful for us."
A few minutes later Richardson replied: "I have already spoken to Matt Goodwin and the data is incoming."
Goodwin told openDemocracy that the data referred to in this exchange was a UKIP membership survey included in a co-authored academic book. “To my knowledge this [data] was never shared although a presentation was given to the party, multiple academic conferences and then published in the book,” Goodwin said.
Separately, the Information Commissioner’s Office issued an information notice against UKIP for failing to hand over details of use of data analytics during the Brexit referendum.
‘Questions that now need answering’
Commenting on openDemocracy’s latest revelations, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw said: “Once again it seems the Leave campaign has not been open about its activities, in this case the extent of its contacts with Cambridge Analytica.
“This strengthens the argument for the UK to have our own Mueller style judicial inquiry to examine and get to the bottom of all the allegations that have dogged pro Brexit campaigners.”
Liberal Democrat Tom Brake said: “The evidence points very clearly to much more frequent contact between Cambridge Analytica and Leave.EU than has been admitted.
“The question that now needs answering is ‘why have the contacts between CA and Leave.EU been under-reported and what do they have to hide? This affair gets murkier and murkier, casting yet more doubt over the validity of the referendum result.”
Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore have so far not responded to openDemocracy’s request for comment.
Update, 24 September 2019: The National Crime Agency has found no evidence that Arron Banks, Elizabeth Bilney, Better for the Country Ltd or Leave.EU committed a crime under electoral or company law. Its investigation related to a referral from the Electoral Commission on 1 November 2018. For more information see the NCA statement here.
Urgent: expose dark money in our politics
Dear readers across the world,
Brexit has shown how broken British democracy is, with voters still in the dark about who bankrolls the politicians and lobbyists deciding the country's future.
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