Reform UK candidate doesn't 'get' mayor role

ONE of the candidates for the West of England metro mayor election has said he doesn’t want to win, can’t work out what the metro mayor role actually is and will appoint a deputy to do the job if he does win.

- TRISTAN CORK

Reform UK candidate Arron Banks said the recent polls which suggested he was currently in third place and had an outside chance of winning were “a bit worrying”, and added that he was “hoping for an honourable second” place in Thursday’s vote.

The millionaire businessman, who donated £8 million to the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum in 2016, is currently polling at around 18 per cent of the vote, with Labour and the Green Party candidate ahead in the mid-20s percentage points in what is thought to be an unprecedented five-horse race.

In an interview with The Times at his mansion near Thornbury, Mr Banks said he thought the role of metro mayor was a “meaningless job”.