Arron Banks battles Bristol Council for ‘Banksy’ slogan

It’s all kicking off in Bristol. On Friday, Reform UK announced that the multimillionaire Arron Banks was going to be their candidate for the mayoralty of the West of England. But the self-proclaimed ‘bad boy of Brexit’ faces opposition from overzealous apparatchiks on Bristol City Council. Officials from the Green-run authority have told Banks that he is not permitted to use his favoured slogan of ‘Banksy for Bristol’ on party literature – despite it, er, literally being a linguistic play on his name.

Now, Reform UK has written to the council to demand that this be overturned. In a letter, seen by The Spectator, the party complains that:

Any such restriction would be legally misconceived, unjustified, and liable to immediate challenge. To compound matters, this was flagged to Mr Banks and his team with to go one hour before the deadline to publish his literature – essentially preventing any meaningful ability to contest this decision and effectively barring Mr Banks from running the campaign he had intended.