The self-styled \u201cBad Boy of Brexit\u201d, who founded and funded the Leave.EU campaign which helped secure Britain\u2019s departure from the European Union, is standing for Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK<\/a> to become regional mayor for the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) \u2013 a political fiefdom combining three council areas including the City of Bristol<\/a>. <\/p>\n The self-made multi-millionaire, who earned his fortune from insurance ventures first started <\/strong>in the area, has described the mayoralty as having \u201cvery little power\u201d. <\/p>\n Banks, who continues to live near Bristol, recently told an interviewer: \u201cThere\u2019s no mistake, it\u2019s not the sort of job where you can get a great deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n The cricket-mad businessman, who has made clear his enthusiasm for the political tactics of Donald Trump<\/a> and is forthright in his robustly right-wing views on issues from climate change to \u201cwokery\u201d, is equally candid about how he is perceived in Bristol, home to the largest share of the WECA electorate and long a bastion of support for Labour, and more lately, the Greens.<\/p>\n During his unveiling as Reform\u2019s candidate at a glitzy rally in Birmingham in March, the 59-year-old somewhat jarringly told the audience of party faithful: \u201cI\u2019m about as popular in Bristol as a pork pie at a Bar Mitzvah.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet, as he seeks to ride the wave of Reform UK\u2019s current strength in national opinion polls \u2013 one survey last week suggested that it would emerge as the single largest party if a general election was held now \u2013 Banks would appear to have a fighting chance of winning next week, or at least running his opponents from more established parties uncomfortably close.<\/p>\n The arch-Brexiteer has done his best to attract headlines on the campaign trail \u2013 accusing local councils of presiding over \u201cabsolute chaos\u201d, claiming that Bristol is \u201creally corrupt\u201d, attacking the city\u2019s Somali community and rejecting concerns from election chiefs over calling himself \u201cBanksy\u201d in his campaign literature on the basis that doing so risked treading on the toes of the Bristol-based graffiti artist of the same name.<\/p>\n Perhaps unsurprisingly, he has declared himself to be in a five-way race for the mayoralty alongside candidates from Labour, the Greens, the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. The incumbent mayor, Labour\u2019s Dan Norris, who is also a Somerset MP, was this month arrested on suspicion of rape and child sex offences. He has been released on police bail while investigations continue.<\/p>\n But Banks is not the only one who believes that he may have a chance of delivering an electoral shock.<\/p>\n Several experts approached by The i Paper said the WECA mayoralty election is likely to prove a close race amid evidence of disgruntlement among voters with Labour and the Conservatives<\/a> and a willingness to embrace alternative or populist agendas, including that of a party like Reform UK which is fielding some 1,600 candidates<\/a> \u2013 more than any of its rivals \u2013 on 1 May. <\/p>\n A survey by YouGov for the WECA contest published on Friday put Reform on 18 points, narrowly ahead of the Conservatives but behind Labour (23 per cent) and the Greens (27 per cent).<\/p>\n The candidates standing for the West of England Combined Authority mayor:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Arron Banks (Reform UK) One pollster, speaking on condition of anonymity because their company has not done targeted surveys in the mayoralty area, said: \u201cIf you look at the national polling, we are in an era of almost unprecedented volatility, low trust and low engagement among votes. <\/p>\n \u201cThat is the sort of context where a candidate willing to make waves to grab attention can have an unexpectedly large effect on the final outcome. Reform UK are putting a lot of resource into the local elections and there is clearly a feeling in the party leadership that their time has come.\u201d <\/p>\n Can the Brexit bad boy win?<\/p>\n A forecast based on models from previous election results by an independent statistician based in the WECA area has placed Reform on level pegging at 20 per cent of the vote with Labour and the Lib Dems for the mayoralty. The Greens were marginally ahead with 24 per cent.<\/p>\n Nigel Marriott, who has produced forecasts for previous elections, said the contest was shaping up to be \u201cone of the most unpredictable\u201d he has seen, with Banks potentially picking up votes in more Conservative-leaning areas outside Bristol. He said: \u201cReform\u2019s share of the vote is the hardest to try and predict because they did not stand in the previous mayoral election in 2021 but I think it is certainly a five-way marginal.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we have to understand is the change in the political dynamic. Until now, it was difficult for polarising figures to win elections because you always needed to attract supporters who weren\u2019t necessarily in your orbit. But now Labour and the Conservatives account for barely half the national vote and you could probably get 20 to 25 per cent of the vote and win. That is a big change in the electoral landscape.\u201d <\/p>\n It is a seismic shift which seems to have helped persuade Banks to enter the political fray directly after decades in his chosen role as something of a grey eminence in British politics.<\/p>\n After twice unsuccessfully standing as a Conservative councillor in Basingstoke in the late 80s, he has since preferred to fund his chosen causes \u2013 he backed the UK Independence Party, and then Leave.EU to the tune of \u00a38m through personal and business donations \u2013 and leave the frontline politicking to the likes of Farage<\/a>. Even after becoming a household name during the Brexit campaign and its aftermath, Banks has largely kept away from the limelight, maintaining his businesses in Britain and South Africa while also keeping his links with the populist right.<\/p>\n He has faced claims about the sources of his wealth<\/a> and his relationship with Russia, leading to a High Court libel battle with journalist Carole Cadwalladr<\/a> which he initially lost before eventually scoring a partial victory on appeal and leaving his opponent with a \u00a31.2m legal bill. \u00a0<\/p>\n The businessman insists that he is only standing on 1 May after he received a phone call from the Reform leader while watching a game of cricket in South Africa a few months ago with a glass of white wine in his hand. As the would-be mayor previously put it: \u201cWhen the boss phones you and says you\u2019ve got to do it, you do it right?\u201d<\/p>\n Neither Banks nor Reform UK responded to requests from The i Paper to comment on his mayoral campaign. <\/p>\n Banks\u2019 campaign style<\/p>\n Nonetheless, there is ample evidence that the millionaire insurance broker turned hard-charging politician \u2013 he this week posted a video of himself knocking back a mid-afternoon tequila shot while campaigning in a Bristol boozer \u2013 is approaching his task with his characteristic zeal for shaking up the status quo and attracting controversy.<\/p>\n As he puts it in one of his campaign videos: \u201cI\u2019ve never really cared what anyone thought of me. I\u2019ve always found that speaking your mind upsets a lot of people. I don\u2019t care.\u201d <\/p>\n Among those he has upset so far are members of Bristol\u2019s Somali community \u2013 long established by former Somali seaman who worked on British merchant ships and settled in the UK\u2019s port cities. <\/p>\n Banks, who has previously referred to Bristol as \u201clittle Somalia\u201d, doubled-down on his position earlier this month, suggesting that Home Office figures showed the city\u2019s Somali community was 10 times more likely to commit serious crime than other communities. He said: \u201cIt\u2019s not to say all Somalians are bad people, but in the same way that Romanians are at the forefront of criminal activities in most cities, certainly Somalians in Bristol are at the forefront of crime in Bristol.\u201d<\/p>\n To date, Banks has not produced the Home Office data to which he refers. Separate figures show that while the 9,500 Somalis in Bristol make up its largest ethnic minority \u2013 accounting for 1.9 per cent of the population \u2013 they last year made up 0.7 per cent of suspects in violent or sexual crime.<\/p>\n One senior member of the Somali community told The i Paper this week: \u201cMr Banks is entitled to his opinions but it is sad if he is singling out particular small communities such as our own to get votes. Somalis have lived in Bristol for a long time \u2013 we are the carers, the NHS workers, the cleaners and the taxi drivers in this city. We need a mayor to bring people together, not make divisions.\u201d <\/p>\n![\"TOPSHOT](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/SEI_248648978.jpg\")
Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage and Arron Banks as he is unveiled as the party\u2019s mayoral candidate in the South West, firing blue hi-vis jackets into the audience during the party\u2019s local election campaign launch, in Birmingham (Photo: Oli Scarff\/AFP)Riding the wave of Reform\u2019s popularity<\/p>\n\n
\u2022 Helen Godwin (Labour Party)
\u2022 Oli Henman (Liberal Democrats)
\u2022 Mary Page (Green Party)
\u2022 Ian Scott (Independent)
\u2022 Steve Smith (The Conservative Party Candidate)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
![\"File](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/PRI_214543682.jpg\")
A statue of Edward Colston was toppled and dropped into Bristol harbour during a Black Lives Matter protest rally in June 2020 (Photo: Ben Birchall\/PA Wire)<\/p>\n