Ben Habib

I was mouthing off in our boardroom about my frustrations in February, I think, 2019.

And there was our PR guy was there who knew Nigel Farage and he said, do you want to meet Farage?

He's setting up this new party called the Brexit Party.

And in those days, I thought Farage was a sort of racist, xenophobic, swivel-eyed lunatic because that was the portrayal of him, you know, through mainstream media.

But I went to meet him and found him to be a perfectly reasonable, affable, charming guy.

I offered to donate and I offered to help in any way I can.

So I became an NEP.

I think I donated a small amount of money to the Brexit party, a few thousand quid, but, you know, nothing substantial.

They weren't.

I met Christopher Harbourn in their office during those initial meetings and he had been a Conservative donor himself.

You know, we had a kind of shared history with the Conservative Party and we both discussed how we loathed the way the Conservative Party had ceased to be Conservative.

But I had no idea how rich Christopher Harbourn was when I first met him.

I knew he was richer than me, but I didn't realize how considerably, you know, how much more considerably rich he was than I am.

I think the reported figure is 10 million pounds donated to the Brexit Party by him during that six, nine month period that the Brexit Party sort of functioned.

But I think the figure is bigger than that.

I think it's more like 14.

And I know Tice and Farage were flying up and down the country in helicopters and things, you know, for the campaign during the general election, even though we stood down against the Conservatives, even though Farage has stood us down against the Conservatives.

One thing Artbourne used to say to me in 2019 is that Boris is biddable.

Boris Johnson is biddable.