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Ukip's Arron Banks to set up pirate radio station on fishing trawler off the Essex coast if he is selected as Clacton candidate

Arron Banks hopes to become the Ukip candidate in Clacton -  ANDREW YATES
Arron Banks hopes to become the Ukip candidate in Clacton - ANDREW YATES

Millionaire Ukip donor Arron Banks plans to campaign using a pirate radio station operating from a former fishing trawler off the coast of Essex if he is selected as a candidate there. 

Mr Banks is hoping that he will be approved on Wednesday next week as the UK Independence Party candidate for Clacton in the general eleciton.

Douglas Carswell's pictured with Nigel Farage - Credit: Oli Scarff /Getty
Clacton was Douglas Carswell's seat (pictured here with Nigel Farage) Credit: Oli Scarff /Getty

Mr Banks is due to meet with Ukip councillors on Monday in Clacton and has taken a lease on the constituency's former MP’s Douglas Carswell’s shop in the town to be his campaign offices.

The former Ukip donor is due to meet with the party’s National Executive Committee on Wednesday for a hustings.

Andy Wigmore, a close associate and former DJ, said Mr Banks will campaign the help of a pirate radio station broadcasting election messages from a former fishing trawler off the coast of Clacton if he is selected.

A trawler had been donated by pro-Leave supporting fishermen and could start broadcasting within weeks to the people of Clacton.

Mr Wigmore said: “It will not be Ukip FM. We are launching a pirate radio station for the election because Clacton is famous for its pirate radios.”

He added: “We have a whole cast of DJs who will be broadcasting throughout the election from our pirate radio ship.”

'Mischief, mayhem and guerrilla warfare'

The station will be “broadcast off the coast of Clacton in international waters”, he said. The only cost is the speedboat taking the DJs to and from the vessel.

These include Mr Wigmore himself, Mike Read, the former Radio 1 DJ, and Nigel Farage, the former Ukip leader who now hosts a nightly LBC talkshow.

The station would be “based offshore in international waters”, he said, adding “it will be all about the election with music”.

Asked if the station was allowed under UK election law Mr Wigmore said: “If it is a pirate radio station how can they stop you? It is going to happen, I promise you.”

Pirate radio stations broadcast off the coast of Essex in the 1960s and 1970s. In 2014 pirate radio museum has opened on Clacton seafront.

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