Banks just misses out on job he didn't want

Reform’s local election success might have been even greater had they not selected Arron Banks – a multi-millionaire who sounded like he didn’t particularly want the job – as their candidate for the West of England mayoralty.

Banks, the Brexiteer businessman who funded Leave.EU, came second to Labour’s Helen Godwin, by around 6,000 votes, taking 22.1% of the total vote to her 25%. The loss means he won’t be forced to take what he derided as a “meaningless job” with little power to help anyone in an interview just days before voters went to the polls.

Last weekend, he told a Times journalist – in an interview in which he “poured himself a second glass of red wine” at midday – that polls showing he had a chance of winning were “a bit worrying” and that he was “hoping for an honourable second”.

Banks admitted he was only standing because Nigel Farage told him “you’ve got to do it” and said that, in the event of him winning, “I’ll probably appoint a deputy mayor and give him instructions. I’ll direct him from my chateau 30 miles behind the lines and get some results.”

He added, “I have tried to figure out what this office does and I can’t see what it actually does” and that, despite standing on the Reform platform, “I personally think local politics should be independent”.

Finally, asked whether he had been out knocking on doors, Banks laughed. Imagine how well he might have done had he actually been arsed!