Millionaire Brexit donor Arron Banks has gone into battle with MPs in a blockbuster hearing in Parliament.

The Leave.EU co-founder joked about being an "evil genius", boasted about exploiting anti-migrant hate and asked an MP if he'd committed sexual harassment during the eye-popping grilling.

Eventually he simply walked out - to go and have lunch with DUP Brexiteer Ian Paisley.

Banks attended the extraordinary hearing after it emerged he met the Russian Ambassador in 2016 days after he met Donald Trump - and even handed over phone numbers for the President-elect's transition team.

Arron Banks WALKS OUT of fake news committee hearing

Today the insurance tycoon, an ally of ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage, claimed he just wanted a "good lunch" - and branded claims he'd done anything wrong "fake news".

Instead he tried to turn the tables on MPs, branding Parliament the nation's biggest source of fake news and demanding his inquisitor resigned.

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Why does all this matter?

Because Banks had a disruptive and controversial impact on the Brexit referendum. Leave.EU narrowly missed out on a bid to be the official Leave group, and he helped fund UKIP at the height of its power.

He's also long faced accusations about what links he had to Cambridge Analytica, the shamed firm that harvested millions of people's Facebook data for electoral gain.

And he's faced questions about whether his offshore business interests have any power to boost his political power in the UK.

All that and more came up at the hearing of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee today.

It went on for well over two hours - but we've rounded up the best moments here.

1. When he said 'I like to think I'm an evil genius'

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"I like to think I’m an evil genius with a white cat that controls the whole of western democracy," Arron Banks proclaimed.

Before happily adding: "Clearly that’s nonsense."

2. When he boasted of stoking the immigration 'wildfire'

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Leave.EU was notorious for its aggressive campaigning style.

"How does social media get traction?" Banks asked MPs. "My experience is it's a firestorm, like a brush fire, it blows over the thing.

"Our skill was creating bushfires than putting a big fan on and making the fan blow."

He explained "we picked topics we knew would fly," adding: "The immigration issue was the one that set the wildfires burning, that’s why we did that."

3. When he admitted meeting Russia because it'd be 'nice'

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Banks met the Russian ambassador for lunch just days after he made a high-profile visit to Donald Trump in Trump Tower.

He freely admitted handing over phone numbers for Trump's transition team to the ambassador. But he said he gave the Russians no more than that.

Asked what he was going to get from the lunch, Banks retorted: "I am hoping for a good lunch. That's what I did gain from it."

His sidekick Andy Wigmore added: "I asked to meet them. We met them at a UKIP conference. I was a diplomat, and we thought it would be quite a nice thing to go and chat to them.

"Why? Because his wife is also Russian, she's never engaged in much of the Russian diaspora, and we thought it would be nice to have a chat with him. I've met him and his people in the diplomatic community many times."

Banks eventually admitted: "If we hadn’t been involved in Brexit, we wouldn’t have obviously been invited for lunch."

4. When it emerged Russian links began with a BANANA deal

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Sidekick Andy Wigmore told the committee he first met with the Russians in his role as a diplomat for the South American country of Belize.

He said: "We had a couple of issues in relation to bananas and sugar and the initial conversation I had with this gentleman at the Ukip conference.

"I was trying to find investors to look at perhaps buying a banana farm which had got into trouble because of its owner.

"And as a consequence Belize couldn't sell its bananas in places like the United States or the United Kingdom.

"It needed someone to buy them. One of the conversations we had was about that.

"There was a myriad of things we wanted to talk to them about... it wasn't anything to do with politics."

5. When he asked an MP if he'd committed drunken sexual harassment

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As questions got increasingly fraught Banks asked Labour's Ian C Lucas: "What is this?

"Are you the MP that got drunk in the House of Commons and harassed a woman and got drunk at a karaoke evening?"

Mr Lucas retorted: "No."

Banks hit back: "Good, one of the committee is, I just don't know which one!"

6. When his team claimed he just 'exaggerated' about using a shamed data firm

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Mr Banks CONFIRMED Leave.EU held talks with shamed data firm Cambridge Analytica, and intended to use its services if it become the official campaign.

Cambridge Analytica shut down after it emerged it had used data harvested from millions of Facebook users' profiles.

But Banks insisted Leave.EU said they did not go ahead with the proposed work, as rival group Vote Leave won the battle for designation.

He confirmed Leave.EU was put in touch with Cambridge Analytica by former Trump aide Steve Bannon, adding he had met Bannon twice at that point.

Leave.EU was part of the GO Movement, which failed to win the official designation. In its application the group said it used Cambridge Analytica.

But Banks dismissed the data firm as an "advertising agency" that "did a little bit of politics on the side".

"We had two or three meetings with them and it became clear to me that - as is true in a lot of politics - there is a lot of sizzle and sometimes not a lot of substance," he said.

Asked why they had suggested otherwise, his sidekick Mr Wigmore told the committee: "There was probably a bit of boastfulness. I'm an agent provocateur, my job is to spin.

"I would be guilty of being an agent provocateur, slight exaggerating in the message - quite often - I'm guilty of doing that, absolutely."

Even Banks suggested MPs should take past claims with a "slight pinch of salt".

"We were a disruptive campaign and we certainly weren’t above leading journalists up the country path, making fun of them," he said.

"We were running a campaign deliberately aimed at making fun of people."

7. When he got really cross about his tax status

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Angry Banks told MPs no money from his overseas business interests formed part of his political donations - and he was "crystal clear" about the rules.

"I live in south Gloucestershire," he huffed. "I pay my taxes in south Gloucestershire.

"I pay a shed-load of tax, probably more than the entire committee put together.

"I'm not going to be lectured about my business interests. I structure everything legally.

"If you don't like the tax law pertaining to this country, get out there and change that. I would support that in many ways."

8. When he got REALLY cross about his insurance firm

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Banks faced heavy questioning about whether there was any exchange of data between his Eldon Insurance firm, which employs 1,000 people, and his Brexit campaigning.

Ex-Cambridge Analytica employee Brittany Kaiser previously claimed Leave.EU used personal customer information from Eldon to target advertising.

But Banks flatly denied the allegations.

Asked if it could have happened the other way round - that his insurance firms may have used Leave.EU data - Banks said "I can’t be categorical about everything" but "I don't believe so."

At one point he said grumpily: "I’m now not going to answer any more questions about the insurance business.

"You can ask away. I'm not going to answer any more."

As he was accused of avoiding questions his sidekick Mr Wigmore cut in and said: "I don’t care i’m speaking as well! What relevance has this got to do with the referendum and fake news?"

9. When he demanded his inquisitor resign

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Before questioning had even begun, sidekick Andy Wigmore challenged the Tory MP Damian Collins' right to chair the hearing

It came after reports the MP had received tickets to Stamford Bridge worth £1,000.

"In light of the fact that, according to Guido, you had some hospitality from Putin's number one man in the UK, do you not think you are a bit conflicted questioning us about this today?" asked Mr Wigmore.

"Perhaps you might want to recuse yourself and let one of the other people take over as chair?"

A laughing Mr Collins responded: "It's a nice try, Mr Wigmore. You may have better intel than me. I didn't know that Roman Abramovich was Putin's number one man in London, but you may know more than I do.

"All I can say is I got invited to the football, I didn't meet the owner, I wasn't offered Stalin's vodka, I'm not as good at pushing their buttons as you are."

10. When he branded Parliament Britain's fake news factory

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Asked if his campaign has used "fake news to shake people up", sidekick Mr Wigmore retorted: "What is fake news?

"Every politician with great respect uses the best placed position of a situation to try and create the best environment for someone to write about it.

"If that's fake news then that's what we do."

Arron Banks told an MP: "Parliament itself is the biggest source of fake news in the entire country.

"Straight after this meeting you'll be at lunch with some Guardian journalist quaffing a glass of Chablis and spinning it the way you want to spin it."

11. When he revealed Trump didn't know No10's phone number

Banks and Wigmore were with Nigel Farage when he became the first British politician to meet president-elect Donald Trump in 2016.

And what happened really shows where the power lay that day.

Mr Wigmore said he passed the phone number for Downing Street to Donald Trump's transition team.

He told MPs: "There was obviously chaos.

"This young girl on the transition desk said 'you're British, do you have the telephone number for 10 Downing Street?

"Because they called and I haven't got a number for them."

12. When he demanded the Remainers put their hands up

Things descended into farce as Banks tried to turn the questioning on the committee.

"I know that you’re all Remainers, I think," he said. "All remainers? Hands up!"

The MPs did not put their hands up.

13. Finally... When he told a 'fake news' committee this...

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Wigmore said: "The piece of advice we got right from the beginning was remember - a referendum is not about facts, it's about emotion.

"You've got to tap into that emotion, it doesn't matter how many facts you throw at it, it's white noise to people.

"People are voting on things they believe and feel."

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Later, Labour MP Ian C Lucas tried to explain why this was so important. "You're the biggest financial donor in British political history," he said.

Banks said smugly: "That’s what you really hate."