OUT

1

Arron Banks

£8,106,375 (95)

2

Peter Hargreaves

£3,200,000 (35)

3

Jeremy Hosking

£1,691,296 (92)

4

Lord Edmiston

£1,000,000 (50)

5

Crispin Odey

£873,328 (57)

6

Lord Bamford

£673,000 (30)

7

Peter Cruddas

£350,000 (65)

8

Michael Freeman

£348,000 (130)

9

Lord Farmer

£300,000 (128)

10

Tim Martin

£212,000 (92)

TOP 10

DON ORS

With £6m loaned and £2.1m donated to the

Brexit campaign in the four months preceding

polling day, Banks backed his political position

with more money than anyone else , his £8.1m

amounting to 29% of all Rich Listers’ donations

and loans. A former Tory donor, Banks switched

to Ukip in 2014 , when he added a zero to the

£100,000 he proposed to give Nigel Farage after

William Hague dismissed him as a nobody. A Rich

List new entry, his Eldon Insurance Services ,

which trades as GoSkippy , is expected to list on

the stock market with a value of a bout £250m.

62.5%

OF DONATIONS

£17.4m

donated by 29

people in the

Rich List

Rich List 2017

In all, there were donations of a little more

than £33m to the Brexit and “remain”

camps in the four months running up to the

referendum, with a further £6.1m loaned,

chiefl y to the Brexit camp. Of that £39.1m

staked on the outcome of the in/out vote,

£27.8m (or 71%) came from just 59

individuals in this year’s Rich List. The

remaining 65m of us in the United

Kingdom rustled up the £11.3m balance.

With the margins so narrow, the

donations of Rich Listers were critical to

win hearts and minds, as the electorate was

bombarded with claim and counterclaim in

an unprecedented media blitz.

Of the£27.8m gambled by Rich Listers

on the outcome, £17.4m (62.5%) was

staked on Brexit, with £10.4m (37.5%)

put behind “remain”. How important was

that imbalance of fi nancial support in

persuading 1m more to back Brexit than to

preserve the status quo?

Not far short of half the sum put behind

Brexit came from one man: the Ukip

donor Arron B anks , who loaned £6m to

Leave.EU Group and gave £2.1m ,

principally to Grassroots Out. If one person

can be said to have “bought” the EU

referendum outcome, it is Banks, a new

entry to this year’s Rich List worth £250m.

“It was war,” he said afterwards. “To me, it’s

a matter of life and death for my country.”

Banks will regard the £8.1m he provided

leading up to polling day a s money well

spent. David Sainsbury was the lead donor

for the other side , pouring in £4.2m to

“remain”. However, Sainsbury’s losses were

small compared with some who backed

Brexit. In a Rich List where fewer than 12%

of the richest 1,000 have seen their wealth

decline, several high-profi le Brexiteers have

watched their fortunes slump.

Most prominent among them is Crispin

Odey (down £125m), who saw his hedge

fund’s pessimistic bets on the economy

backfi re as the stock market rallied.

Others, such as Lord Bamford , will feel

vindicated. Although down £200m this

year based on pre-Brexit results, the second

largest order thus far for JCB (£115 m from

the US army), landed since the vote and

subsequent slide in the value of sterling,

suggests good times ahead.

Sir Paul Marshall , up £40m this year, will

feel the same way, quitting the Liberal

Democrats in 2015 as the party’s stance

ran contrary to his pro-Brexit views. The

Tory donor Lord Edmiston becomes a

billionaire this year, up £480m, months

after backing Brexit to the tune of £1m n

453= £ 250 m New entry ★

ARRON BANKS

Insurance and diamonds

71%

of donations and loans

for the campaign came

from 59 people in

the Rich List

The Sunday Times Magazine • 95

ALAMY, REX