As you say, lionheart, the Arron Banks/Russia stuff isn't really off topic.
If he does turn up before the DCMS committee, I'll have to spend another day struggling with the video feed... He's already in deep doodoo for DPA breaches, if Brittany Kaiser's testimony to the committee is to be believed.
data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/digital-culture-media-and-sport-committee/fake-news/oral/81592.html
Oral evidence: Fake News, HC 363
Tuesday 17 April 2018
Q1575 Jo Stevens: Okay, thank you. I know in your written evidence you mention the fact that there was a discussion, or something was talked about with Arron Banks, about the use of the Eldon and GoSkippy data. To quote from your written evidence: “Arron Banks said, ‘It’s my data’”, so he is using customer data from GoSkippy and Eldon Insurance for other purposes.
Brittany Kaiser: That is what I saw with my own eyes when I spent a day at the Bristol headquarters. I was brought there under the understanding that I was going to Leave.EU’s headquarters. It became very quickly obvious that this was actually an Eldon Insurance headquarters, which is also the parent company of GoSkippy—maybe that is one of their brands.
All the staff there were employed by an insurance company and almost none knew anything about political campaigning. A lot of what I said to them and what I presented to them was novel. They had never heard of any of these tactics. They had never participated in politics before and openly said, “I work for an insurance company, so—help!”
Q1576 Jo Stevens: So why were you going to see the people in the call centre? Were they going to be working on the Leave.EU campaign?
Brittany Kaiser: They were actively working on the Leave.EU campaign when I was there.
Q1577 Jo Stevens: And how many people were working in the call centre?
Brittany Kaiser: The call centre was about the size of this room—maybe a little bit smaller—with at least, probably, 20 active callers. They all had a computer and a headset, making calls that I assume were normally sales calls or calls for customer assistance or advice, and instead they were calling people to undertake a survey.
They were talking to those people about their interest in leaving the European Union, and issues around Brexit, and Leave or Remain. We were sitting with those individuals specifically because we said it was unlikely that the survey that they were undertaking was up to scratch with what we would need for modelling. So, we sat there to understand what data they were using, what surveys they were undertaking and how we could improve on that, so that that data could be used for nationwide modelling.
I was under the impression, by what they told me, that every single individual that they were pulling up to call was actually a lead or a current customer of Eldon Insurance or GoSkippy.
Q1578 Jo Stevens: And do you know for how long they’d been making those calls? I think you visited in November, didn’t you?
Brittany Kaiser: I believe I visited in November, yes; I would have to double-check that. But it would have been end of October/early November. And they had probably already been doing that for a month or two, because we started having these conversations with them in September.
Q1579 Jo Stevens: Right. And this was a full-time call centre?
Brittany Kaiser: Yes.
Q1580 Jo Stevens: With 20 people in it?
Brittany Kaiser: At least.