UKIP at war again as backer Banks demands cash refund

Britain's United Kingdom Independence Party found itself at the centre of another storm on Friday as one of its most prominent donors demanded his money back.

UKIP backer Arron Banks said he wanted £200,000 back for office services to the right-wing, anti European Union party.

Multimillionaire Banks left the party this month, claiming the party had suspended him. He donated £1m to the group before the 2015 General Election. UKIP claim his membership had lapsed.

Services he provided included call centres and membership administration. Banks said that since he had effectively been “suspended” he did not know “why I am going to provide the service for free”

"I don’t think so. So – yes – there is a bill in the post for the thick end of £200,000," the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.

Confirming the existence of an invoice a UKIP spokesman said: “Since Arron Banks first became involved with UKIP, before the last general election, he has been a generous donor. All the support he has given UKIP has been on that basis and not on a supplier-client one. We don’t understand why he now claims his generous donations were something different.”

Lately Banks has been increasingly vocal in his criticism of the party after its poor showing at the recent Stoke by-election where new leader Paul Nuttall failed to take the seat from Labour.

Electorally the party has struggled. It only has one MP at Westminster, the Conservative defector Douglas Carswell who Banks has demanded be sacked.