Nigel Farage and Brexit bankroller Arron Banks should be added to the UK's sanctions list, a Labour MP said today.
Speaking in the Commons, where he is protected by Parliamentary privilege, Labour former minister Chris Bryant said he is "mystified" by some of the names missing from the UK sanctions list and used parliamentary privilege to identify individuals.
These included broadcasters "trotting out propaganda" on Russian television, others said to be associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime, plus those involved in Gazprom contracts.
He also questioned why Roman Abramovich's properties "owned through his subsidiaries, as it were, or members of his family rather" have not been frozen.
Mr Bryant went on: "I don't understand why Arron Banks, frankly, isn't on the list either. Even Isabel Oakeshott now thinks that he is an 'agent of influence for the Russian state'.
"I simply point out that Nigel Farage received from Russia Today £548,573 in 2018 alone - from the Russian state."
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A source close to Mr Farage denied this figure, noting that it was, in fact, his firm's total income for that year and not solely from Russia Today.
Mr Farage has made a series of appearances on Russia Today, including in 2018, when he was a guest on the programme "News Thing".
Nigel Farage told the Mirror: "I’d be very happy if Chris Bryant repeated that outside of the Commons and even happier if The Mirror print it, because I could do with a new car.”
A source close to Arron Banks said: "Chris Bryant’s comments are from the emotional anti- Brexit child’s guide to political comment. 'Everyone I don’t like that voted for Brexit must have links to the Kremlin'.”
Mr Banks has faced claims he and his Leave.EU campaign were backed and funded by the Kremlin, something he has consistently dismissed as "b******s."
The source noted Mr Banks, the campaign and his companies had been investigated by the National Crime Agency who found no evidence of wrongdoing.
