A controversial businessman with links to the Isle of Man is facing more allegations about his role in the Brexit vote.

Arron Banks bankrolled a lavish lifestyle for Nigel Farage, including a £4.4m rented London home, a luxury car, a bodyguard, a private office and trips to the United States, an investigation has found.

Items paid for by Banks included Farage’s London home, his car and trips to the US to meet Donald Trump.

A spokesman for Banks confirmed the amount and what it had been used for, saying it was an ’honour to help’.

Asked about the funding following an investigation by Channel 4 News, Farage - who now leads the Brexit party - said it was a private matter.

Speaking at the launch of the Brexit party campaign in Scotland, Farage said he did not declare the it to the European Parliament because he was about to leave politics and had been seeking a new life in the US. He added his actions had been non-political.

Farage has been a member of the European Parliament since 1999.

He led UKIP in the run-up to the 2016 EU referendum, campaigning alongside Leave.EU, of which Banks was a major financier.

Farage stepped down as leader later the same year, but remained as an MEP.

In March this year, he launched the Brexit Party and is now leading it to fight the European elections.

When campaigning in Dudley, West Midlands, Farage was asked if he had received £450,000 - the amount Channel 4 reported - from Mr Banks and said ’unfortunately not’, adding that if he had, ’it would be lovely’.

But in a statement, Banks said Farage ’would not have had a clue how much things would have cost’.

The Leave.EU founder said he had ’willingly helped Farage and was honoured to do so’, adding: ’This was all designed to help Nigel get out of politics’. ’I considered it an honour to help and would do it happily again,’ Banks said.

A spokesman for the European Parliament said that MEPs have to declare any spending linked to political activity that is paid for by third parties.

Farage is currently touring the country to campaign for his new Brexit Party ahead of this week’s European elections.

The party’s donations are reported to have now topped £2m. Sources of all its funding do not legally need to be declared until after the European elections.

Channel 4 News uncovered documents revealing Banks’ gifts to Farage totalled around £450,000.

When Channel 4 confronted him last week, Banks dismissed the revelations as an attempt ’to smear myself and Nigel’ - while Mr Farage insisted there had been no funding of his new Brexit Party.

But at the weekend Banks confirmed the amount.

Channel 4 News said Banks:

lLeased private office space for £1,500 a month and paid Farage’s personal assistant.

lSpent hundreds of thousands of pounds promoting ’Brand Farage’ in America, allowing him to attend the Republican National Convention and address a Donald Trump rally.

lPaid a Fox News television presenter £11,305.41 to interview Farage at the convention.

lPaid more than £15,000 to fly Farage to and from Washington for Trump’s inauguration, plus £1,000 on a room at the plush Mayflower Hotel.

Channel 4 pointed out that Banks remains under investigation by the National Crime Agency over the source of his funding for the Brexit campaign.

Banks’ Manx-based business, Rock Holding Ltd, is under investigation by the National Crime Agency as being the source of a total of £8m in donations to pro-Brexit campaigns during the 2016 referendum, something he has always denied.

In March, Banks’ financial dealings led Channel 4 News on three separate occasions.

The reports focused on gold mines in Russia and diamond mines in South Africa as potential sources for the money.

Banks has always denied any wrongdoing in both instances.

However, the Electoral Commission said it has ’reasonable grounds’ for believing the money for the EU referendum was from a source other than Banks and passed through Rock Holding Ltd.

Their revelations brought the island’s financial system and rules on beneficial ownership back under the spotlight.

The European Commission has previously said: ’The parties to the financial transactions that led to the £8m being paid into Better For The Country’s bank account included a non-qualifying or impermissible company, Rock Holding Ltd, which was incorporated in the Isle of Man.’

Rock Holding Ltd looked likely to be struck off last year after the company gave notice that its registered office had changed to 18 Athol Street, Douglas, from September 28.

But on November 7, the owner of 18 Athol Street, Greystone Trust Company Ltd, filed a statement to Companies Registry, stating that Rock Holding Ltd was not registered at that address.

The business has now been registered at 16 Victoria Street, with a plaque on the street signifying its location.