Watch deleted video of Nigel Farage thanking Steve Bannon and Breitbart for Brexit

Mr Bannon has deep ties to data firm Cambridge Analytica, which has come under scrutiny for using the Facebook data of 50m people without permission.

The video was shot on March 29 last year to mark the triggering of Article 50 by prime minister Theresa May and uploaded to YouTube. It was embedded in an article – still available on the site – with the quote in its headline.

Breitbart have said the video was not from an official Breitbart London YouTube channel and was subsequently deleted, among a group of others, by whoever controls that YouTube page.

The article begins: “As the Prime Minister’s Article 50 letter made its way to Brussels, Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage paid ‘a personal tribute and thank you’ to former Breitbart boss Stephen K. Bannon for the role he played in securing victory for the Leave campaign in the European Union (EU) referendum.”

It goes on to say that Mr Farage “took the opportunity to pay tribute to Breitbart News Network in general and former Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, now a leading figure within President Donald J. Trump’s administration, in particular, for giving eurosceptic voices shut out by the establishment media a platform where they could speak to the public”.

Mr Bannon has since been sacked by Mr Trump. He returned to Breitbart as executive chairman but stepped down in January this year.

In the article, Mr Farage says: ‘One of the very important things that happened is, because we had the entire media against us, and not even willing to give us a fair hearing, I think when Bannon opened up the Breitbart office in London and began to give the arguments that I was making a fair hearing, and very quickly, as Breitbart does well, started to reach a very, very big audience.

“I think actually on this great Brexit day I have to say a personal thank you and tribute to Steve Bannon for having the foresightedness of doing that with Breitbart, and I’m extremely grateful.’

The embedded video remains in the article but now says “this video is unavailable”.

Mr Bannon has sought to distance himself from Cambridge Analytica amid an outcry over its misuse of Facebook data, which compromised the personal information of roughly 50m users.

He has claimed that he “doesn’t remember” buying the data, although he was serving on the firm’s board at the time. He has instead blamed “the Cambridge guy,” referring to former Cambridge University professor Aleksandr Kogan, the researcher at the centre of the scandal.

It has emerged that data from the profiles were looked at against the electoral register, and then used to build an algorithm which analyses people’s personalities in relation to their voting behaviour.

This could then be used to target potential swing voters with messages tailored to influence them politically.

The video has been removed following a copyright claim from Breitbart