Last week Arron Banks said he was pleased to have been referred to the National Crime Agency by the Electoral Commission. There were many other people who were also pleased that the man who had given £8m to Leave.EU had been referred to the NCA. A rare outbreak of shared happiness between Banks and his critics.

There was rather less mutual enjoyment when it was announced that Banks had offered himself up for interview on the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show. Partly because there was a widespread feeling that any interview would have been better done under police caution, but mainly because what Banks thinks is good for Banks is not generally of much use to anyone else. Banks has never knowingly volunteered information that would make any situation less confusing.

“Thank you for having me on,” Banks began. The one statement he made that sounded genuinely credible. It’s not often that someone accused of electoral fraud gets to muddy the waters on live television ahead of a possible criminal investigation. The whole thing had been a total misunderstanding. There had never been any Russian money involved and the whole £8m had come from his insurance business Rock Services Limited.

Marr looked quizzical. Wasn’t Rock Services just a shell company rather than a trading company? Not at all, Banks replied confidently. It was an extremely busy company whose prime function was to do nothing. And that was a lot harder than it looked. It was also wholly owned by Rock Holdings, which was based on the Isle of Man and had definitely not given any money to Leave.EU as it didn’t have any money to give. Rock Holdings existed merely to hold next to nothing.

So what we had were two companies, Rock Services and Rock Holdings, who couldn’t have done anything wrong because they didn’t really do anything in the first place. How the £8m had got into Rock Services seemed as much of a mystery to Banks as it was to the Electoral Commission, so he was looking forward to the NCA sorting the whole thing out.

“Let me get this straight,” said Marr, looking increasingly bewildered. You told a committee of MPs that the money didn’t come from Rock Services as that just delivered cash, and that the money came from another company instead. So which one was it?

Banks gave a passive aggressive stare, waved his papers and narrowed his lips. People were mixing up Rock Services Limited and Rock Services Very Limited. The money came from Rock Services Very Limited which also existed to do nothing and was just one of many companies that was owned by Rock Holdings that also did nothing. He really couldn’t be any clearer than that. Marr observed that the Electoral Commission didn’t believe him. Banks looked like he didn’t entirely believe himself. Not least because he couldn’t fully remember what he had just said.

After a spat over a bank statement Banks had brought in – Marr drily noted that it was heavily redacted and gave no clue to how many other bank accounts Rock Holdings might have held – the interview continued to go round in circles with both men unable to fully explain the financial paper trail. Largely because Banks kept changing his story. At which point it became a possibility that Arron Banks also didn’t really exist himself and that the man on screen was Arron Banks Limited being used to front Arron Banks Holdings.

Eventually Marr gave up. “This is all very complicated,” Marr declared with a slight shake of the head. Banks looked triumphant. Job done. Or not quite done.

“You’re just trying to spear me,” Banks said. Hurt face. Mr Brexit has as little insight into himself as he does into the structures of his companies, so he used the last few minutes to have a pop at his pet hates. The Guardian, the FT, MPs, the Electoral Commission ... Everyone, really, apart from Isabel Oakeshott and Lord Ashcroft. They were Albion’s two remaining saviours. He ended with a soundbite of voting remain in a second referendum. He didn’t mean it but it would distract people from focusing on the money. How do you know Arron Banks is lying? Well, his lips move …