Arron Banks walks out as MPs' questions on Brexit and Russia run late – live

Damian Collins tries to call Ian Lucas for another question, but Banks refuses to take it, saying he’s got an appointment for lunch that he doesn’t want to be late for. He stands up to leave, with Collins asking for one more question.

“The word is no. When we went out, you said 20 minutes, and I think we’ve run past it.” Banks walks out while the cameras are still running, and Collins, looking perturbed at losing control, ends the hearing.

Matheson asks how much money Banks gave to the leave side of the referendum. Banks “doesn’t have the information”, Matheson quotes £9.6m at him, and Banks doesn’t confirm or deny.

Matheson asks about an extra £12m that the Guardian said was lent in kind. Banks says a correction in the online version of the story has altered that figure.

Banks goes on the attack: “That does rather illustrate the point, doesn’t it? You read a Guardian report that has a wilfully misleading headline, and you believe it’s true. But then they correct it, they bury the correction on the website, and you don’t see that. You then ask me a question based on it, and you spread fake news.”

Matheson: “I take that, but earlier, you both talked about how you like to tease, to embellish.”

Banks: “If we didn’t approach this with some sense of humour, we’d get locked up.”

Matheson: “When you’re having these business dealings with Russia, did you ever have any threatening brushes with Russian organised crime?”

Banks: “My only discussion was the one meeting with the guy mentioned in the Sunday Times… In business you have many conversations. A lot of them never lead to anything. Just because you have lunch with someone, or a discussion, does not mean it leads on.”

Chris Matheson asks why Wigmore got involved in Brexit, if he’s a diplomat: “I love this country, I love Belize. I had the ability to help my small country, which I love. For me, the EU could mean huge great things and opportunities for my small country I love. You try and help your small country lobby MPs and MEPs. And the Commonwealth is hugely helpful for that.”

Wigmore says that most of the conversation at the meeting with the Russian ambassador was about his father, who had been based in West Berlin during the cold war. “We talked about that, we got trolleyed, it was fantastic.”

“I don’t feel comfortable” now about the relationships with Russia, he says, “but at the time there were none of those concerns.”

Banks says the committee asking about the published emails is “ironic, given the inquiry about stolen data. I’m not sure it’s even appropriate to be asking about them.”

Banks offers “one final thing”. “In the meantime we were slightly worried – not worried but thinking that we ought to make sure that we absolutely keep people informed of what we’re doing …”

Wigmore jumps in: “What happened, a document was published by the Atlantic Council in the US. This document went into how they believed Russian influence, across the world. In this document they looked at Nigel Farage, Douglas Carswell of all people. They then did a press conference when they reiterated that Arron Banks was a Russian agent.

“What then subsequently happened, we got accused of all sorts of things with relation to Russia. It’s at that point that you start to take the mickey, start to think this is absurd, do what I did with journalists, because you think how can they believe that.

“We thought it was important, if we were going to be involved in any way with the president’s team, to be clear. The person that gave us the best advice was the former chief of staff of David Cameron’s office, who said you need to go to the US embassy and you need to tell them things.

“We met on numerous occasions. They went to meet Paul Nuttall, and to meet Nigel Farage. I arranged that meeting, they had a good chat, we continued that communication any time we thought there was something that we needed to know.”

Wigmore holds up a brown envelope on which he has written “Top Secret”, and says it contains all the information the committee needs to know.

Banks: “I think what we’re trying to say is that we briefed the American security services on everything that has transpired.”

Banks says he did meet with the Russian businessman who was suggesting he invest in six goldmines. He then met with another expert who said “‘be very careful dealing with Russia, but if you are interested, go and see my friend’. He said, it lasted 40 minutes, ‘be very careful’.”

Banks says the Guardian did say the deal went ahead, but that he has “no clue what deal they’re talking about”.

Wigmore adds that he “often used to tease journalists by answering, when they asked where Arron was, that he was in Moscow, or Russia.”

Wigmore repeats again that he’s being “provocative”. Stevens asks him: “What’s the difference between provocative and lying?” He says that he’s “allowed to have a sense of humour”.

Collins points out to Banks that “not for the first time, Mr Wigmore is the source of confusion. If your press man just told the truth, we wouldn’t be here!”

Collins returns to the Russia story that broke at the weekend. “You can probably see that one of the reasons why this has attracted the attention is that this discloses events that weren’t in your book. Why wasn’t more of this in that?”

Banks: “At the last page of the book, by that stage, my only meeting was that lunch with the ambassador. I wrote about it in the book, I gave, those emails stolen from Oakeshott, I gave them to her. So if I was hiding it I was doing a bad job.”

Banks then takes the opportunity to address the Sunday Times’ story: “They say I went to Moscow in February for a meeting. They contacted me when I was at a cricket match. I subsequently went back and looked at my passports, at my Russian visas. There are two Russian visas, so effectively, the Russian visa – first one was March 15, and second one was October 14. So I wasn’t in Moscow in February 16. I’ve got fairly definitive proof that no, I didn’t.

“I also went back in and printed my office diary. The only thing in the note is that in February we got a donation from Roger Hargreaves.

“The reason I keep a second passport is that on one occasion my wife stole my passport when I was about to go off on a trip she didn’t approve of, so now my PA keeps a second one.”

We’re back. Collins asks Banks why he donated to Ukip to pay a bill from Cambridge Analytica. Why did he believe that bill needed to be paid?

Banks: “CA had done some work to Ukip, so I thought they would have to pay. They disagreed.”

Collins: “You didn’t ask for the money back?”

Banks: “No. Put it this way: we knew they had sent the data to CA, and that they were meant to be doing a scoping exercise, which they had done. I made the donation, but it was Ukip that had to settle the bill.”

Wigmore adds: “In context, there had just been a general election where they hadn’t done very well. So this was part of the regenesis.”

Collins: “This project, this Ukip project, has nothing to do with you, so why did you feel you had to settle the bill?”

Banks: “I chose to make a donation. I donated it to Ukip. Whether they disclosed it or should have disclosed it, I have no visibility.”

Collins pulls the committee into a short recess – to go and vote on the EU withdrawal bill. A few more questions will follow in about 15 minutes, he says.