Angry Aaron
Arron Banks, it seems, is upset.
Received this morning, an unaddressed (but presumably paid for) delivery - a letter that seems to be intended to go to every door in Folkestone and Hythe.
In it, Mr Banks - a businessman who made substantial contributions to the Leave campaign and was instrumental in the campaign itself - rails against Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins, as "a disgrace" who is using his position to "launch a pathetic witch-hunt against Brexit".
I hold no brief for Damian Collins. He's a Conservative, I'm a Lib Dem. I've run campaigns as Agent directly to try to unseat him. I've never voted for him. I never will.
But his work on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sports Committee in revealing the links to Russia of key people in that campaign, including Aaron Banks himself, have clearly hit a nerve.
Or maybe it was that the Electoral Commission has fined and reported the Vote Leave campaign to the Police for breaking the law - who knows? Maybe paragraphs like the following from the DCMS Report on Disinformation and Fake News in July 2018 have irked Mr Banks:
"Arron Banks is, reportedly, the largest individual donor in UK political history. As far as we understand, he met with the Russian Ambassador, for the first time, in the run up to the EU Referendum. Evidence discloses that he discussed business ventures within Russia and beyond, and other financial ventures, in a series of meetings with Russian Embassy staff. Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore have misled the Committee on the number of meetings that took place with the Russian Embassy and walked out of the Committee's evidence session to avoid scrutiny of the content of the discussions with the Russian Embassy."
Who can tell? Whatever has driven the multi-millionaire Mr Banks to spend his money on a letter urging people to join the Conservatives locally to oust Mr Collins, he's clearly spending heavily to try to increase the heat on Damian Collins. Presumably, he wants any investigations into the breaking of electoral law by the Vote Leave campaign dropped.
But the BEST reason why that investigation should NOT be dropped is because a multi-millionaire is trying to use his money to bully those investigating into silence.
That may be the way these things are done in Russia, but that cannot become the way things are done here. Keep going Damian. Follow the money.
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