The businessman and Reform UK backer Arron Banks commissioned a private intelligence firm to dig into the Conservative party chair, in addition to having paid for an investigation into a prominent journalist. Banks, a former Reform UK candidate and leave campaign donor, appeared to confirm on Sunday that he was behind an investigation into Kevin Hollinrake. The use of private investigators to look into Hollinrake was first reported by the Mail on Sunday, which said Banks had used Precision Risk and Intelligence, a firm he previously owned.
As party chair, Hollinrake has led the Conservatives’ response to revelations about Nigel Farage’s finances, asking questions about the £5m undeclared gift Farage received from the Thailand-based crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne before the last election. Hollinrake addressed Banks on social media on Sunday, saying: “When you can’t answer the questions, investigate the people asking them. After we called for scrutiny of Reform UK’s finances, a close associate of Nigel Farage reportedly hired private investigators to dig into me (and journalists covering the same story).” In a reply on X, Banks said: “I’ve always come across people in this world who like to give it but can’t receive it.” Pressed on whether Reform knew about the surveillance, Banks suggested he had acted alone, saying: “I row my own boat.” Banks has been approached by the Guardian for comment.
The developments come after it emerged previously in the New Statesman that Banks had commissioned Precision Risk to investigate Gabriel Pogrund, the investigations editor of the Sunday Times. The revelation led to fears that other journalists examining the funding of Reform and Farage, including those at the Guardian, could have been targeted. When asked previously whether he had commissioned investigators to surveil reporters at the Guardian, Banks said he was “not really interested in the Guardian” but declined to comment further.
The News Media Association (NMA), which represents regional and national media, raised concerns and described it as an “attack on our democracy”. The Guardian, along with the Sunday Times, has broken a series of stories in recent months revealing how cash has been given to Reform and Farage personally from donors and wealthy benefactors. Theo Bamber, the chief executive of the NMA, said aggressive attempts to deter journalistic inquiry were at risk of becoming normalised.
He said: “Using private investigators to try to deter journalists from making legitimate inquiries about public figures is an attack on our democracy. Sadly, intimidation and abuse of local and national journalists is increasingly used as a weapon to limit scrutiny and deflect attention away from matters of public interest. This must not become normalised.
We do have an investigative arm that’s got advanced capabilities.” The Sunday Times has rejected Banks’s suggestion. Banks, when asked directly by the New Statesman whether he had paid investigators to look into Pogrund, responded: “When you live by the sword, you die by the sword.” The Sunday Times published a new investigation this weekend into links between Reform funders and Tether.bet, a website accused of illegally offering gambling to UK punters, which closed this week. The newspaper said the convicted fraudster George Cottrell was a high-profile customer of the website, and Harborne owned a company, IFX, that processed payments on behalf of another company that took deposits and returned winnings.
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