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A close ally of Nigel Farage has said Bolshevik revolutionaries who killed Russian intellectuals “had a point”, called for the abolition of several UK regulators, and defended Liz Truss’s chaotic “mini” Budget.
Arron Banks, who Reform UK calls a “senior” member, told the Financial Times that the party should “radically cut away at” the British civil service if Farage leads Reform to victory at the next UK general election.
“The Communists took a third of the intelligentsia out and shot them in a car park, and I always thought what a waste. But now I think actually, they had a point,” he said, referring to the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Banks added: “I’m not suggesting we shoot civil servants in a car park, but metaphorically you’ve got to remove the obstacles that are going to try to stop you.”
The businessman was Reform’s candidate for mayor in the West of England in May, coming a close second, and has been a longtime backer of Farage, describing himself as one of the “bad boys of Brexit”.
Reform has soared in the polls since the 2024 general election, promising a radical agenda of “mass deportation” of illegal immigrants as well as a far-reaching crackdown on legal migration. Its agenda includes removing Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights.
Banks said if Reform won power it should introduce a “Big Reform Bill” to roll back current human rights laws as well as legislation underpinning corporate regulation, saying that when it came to regulators he wanted to “get rid of virtually everything”.
“There are just too many laws,” he said, adding that “there’s no point taking power if you’re just going to do what everyone else has done”.
Reform said Banks “was speaking in a personal capacity and is not spokesman for Reform UK”.
The 59-year-old, who made his fortune in insurance, said a potential Reform government should scrap the Financial Conduct Authority, the City regulator, along with media and internet watchdog Ofcom, the Electoral Commission and the Competition and Markets Authority.
“We operated quite happily before it existed and if it went tomorrow we wouldn’t miss it,” he said of the FCA, which has responsibilities for protecting consumers and promoting competition in financial services.
Banks said the Bank of England could instead oversee the biggest financial institutions, with “nothing” replacing the FCA elsewhere.
“Ofcom is a total waste of time,” he added. “If you don’t like what’s being put on your TV, if you don’t think GB News is producing balanced news, or you don’t like ITV, turn it off. You don’t need bureaucrats to tell you what to think.”
Farage presents a regular show on GB News, which Ofcom has investigated over possible breaches of impartiality rules. The regulator ultimately dropped the probes.
Banks agreed that much of the party’s economic platform was similar to the one put forward by Truss in her infamous “mini” Budget in 2022 that led to a crash in the pound and a sharp rise in borrowing costs.
Farage has promised to cut income taxes and “get rid of inheritance tax”, while slashing government spending.
“The Treasury yield is higher now than it was when she supposedly crashed the economy,” Banks said. “What have Labour done? They’ve put up taxes and all the rich people are leaving. Truss’s budget would have done the opposite. You’ve got to ask who is right and who is wrong.”
But Banks said he believed Truss, who he had dinner with “the other day”, would not be allowed to join Reform because she was “tarnished” in the British imagination. “In people’s minds, she crashed the economy, whether that’s right or wrong, it’s in people’s minds and it’s not changing.”
Banks bankrolled pro-Brexit groups to the tune of more than £8mn, and gave Farage’s former party Ukip £1mn, but has given nothing to Reform, nor does he plan to for the time being.
In 2020, the National Crime Agency concluded an investigation into whether Banks was the true source of Brexit-related donations registered in his name and found that there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
Reform has just five MPs but comfortably leads both Labour and the Conservatives in opinion polling. Several well-known Tories have recently defected to the party.
Banks argued that Reform’s secret weapon at the next general election, expected in 2029, would be people who do not normally vote. “Just like with Brexit, they’ll come out for a one-off, kick-you-in-the face opportunity,” he said.
“It’s a fight to the death now to kill off the Tory party completely and then Reform [will] face Labour at the general election,” he added.
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