Leave.EU founder responds to revelations in leaked emails by saying: 'Bite me. It’s a convenient political witch-hunt, both over Brexit and Trump'
Arron Banks, a major funder of the Brexit campaign, met with the Russian Ambassador to the UK three times in the run up to the EU referendum, it has emerged. The millionaire co-founder of Leave.EU also made repeated contact with Russian officials and flew out to Moscow to discuss business opportunities, according to reports. Mr Banks has previously said his “sole involvement with the Russians was a boozy six-hour lunch with the ambassador”, Alexander Yakovenko, in September 2015. Leaked emails now suggest there were further links between the Leave.EU campaign and Russian officials, according to The Observer and The Sunday Times. Mr Banks and Andy Wigmore, the director of communications for Leave.EU, are said to have had a further lunch with the Russian ambassador in November 2015 – three days after they visited US president Donald Trump in New York with Nigel Farage.
