Ouch. Ex-Tory donor Arron Banks raises UKIP donation to £1m after Hague calls him a nobody

Oops. Bet William Hague wished he hadn’t called Arron Banks a nobody now.

Millionaire businessperson Banks had, until this week, been a Tory donor.

Then as the Conservative conference began, Banks hit them hard by defecting to UKIP and announcing a £100,000 donation to the purple party.

William Hague, probably just a tad on the defensive, hit back by saying: “The conference has fully moved on from the defection of one MP on Saturday and the gentleman you’re talking about [Banks] is not a senior figure in this party, not someone I know at all.”

Now Banks (perfectly demonstrating the theory of nominative determinism) has increased his UKIP donation 10-fold to £1m.

Ouch.

UKIP leader Nigel Farage, unsurprisingly, said he was “delighted” by Banks’s cash injection.

Banks, formerly a lifelong Tory, said he’s switching allegiances now because he believes the UK would be better off leaving the EU.

His move follows the recent defections of Tory MPs Mark Reckless and Douglas Carswell to UKIP.