Brexit campaigners sought US funding Bannon-Banks emails show

Arron Banks, the backer of the biggest campaign behind Brexit, asked Cambridge Analytica to draw up plans for raising funds from the United States, according to a trove of leaked emails.

Correspondence obtained by CNN, and first reported by Open Democracy, on which this story is built, shows Banks in contact with Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix since in October 2015 after being introduced by US President Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon.

In an email to his associate, Andy Wigmore, Banks said he would like Cambridge Analytica to “come up with a strategy for fund raising in the States and engaging companies and special interest groups that might be affected by TTIP,” a transatlantic trade deal between the US and EU, to which Bannon was hostile. It was subsequently scrapped by Trump.

“It’s clear major donors are sitting on the fence but we aim to do something about that,” Banks wrote. “Our first and only priority is to win the nomination and be ahead,” Banks added, referring to his bid for Leave.EU to become the official campaign for Britain to give notice on its EU membership.