Arron Banks put forward as Reform UK Weca candidate

The Reform UK party has announced its mayoral candidate for the West of England.

Businessman Arron Banks, who founded the Leave EU campaign with now-Reform MP Richard Tice, was previously one of the largest donors to UKIP.

“Vote Banksy for Bristol,” he said, as his candidacy was announced at Reform UK’s local election launch in Birmingham.

He admitted he was “really unpopular in Bristol”, but claimed the city was a “five-way battle” which Reform could win.

The West of England Combined Authority (WECA) membership is made up of Bristol, South Gloucestershire and Bath and North East Somerset Councils and is currently led by Dan Norris, who is also the MP for North East Somerset and Hanham.

Mr Norris is set to step down from his mayoral role this spring.

WECA makes decisions on everything from transport to housing and business policies.

Mr Banks has been involved in controversy in the past.

In 2022, he sued investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr for defamation over comments she made in 2019 in a TED talk and a post on X about his relationship with the Russian state.

He lost the case following a five-day hearing at the High Court, but was successful in partially reversing the decision at the Court of Appeal in 2023. Ms Cadwalladr was ordered to pay about £1.2m in legal costs.

Thousands of Mr Banks’ private messages were leaked in 2019 after he fell victim to a hacking scandal.

The same year, Leave.EU and Eldon Insurance – which were both founded by the politician – were fined £120,000 over data law breaches.

Leave EU claimed the fines were “politically motivated”.

• Helen Goodwin – Labour Party

• Oli Henman – Liberal Democrats

• Steve Smith – Conservative and Unionist Party

People will go to the polls on 1 May to vote.