Mayor is a meaningless job, says Reform's man in mayoral race
Arron Banks has been warned by his old friend Nigel Farage to expect anything he says in front of a journalist to be reported. Despite this the multimillionaire insurance tycoon, 59, who donated more than £8 million to the Leave campaign in 2016, is completely unfiltered.
He is Reform's candidate to become mayor of the West of England Combined Authority (WECA), and has repeatedly told The Times that he thinks it is a 'meaningless job' with little power to help anyone.
When I met Banks at Old Down Manor, the country house he runs as a wedding venue and farm park in Thornbury, south Gloucestershire, he joked that polls showing he had a chance of winning were 'a bit worrying'. He said with a smile:
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