You are distracting me a lot – creeping around all the bloody time!' Peter Hargreaves, the Brexit-backing billionaire businessman, has snapped
He's trying to extol the virtues of his new investment firm, Blue Whale, but can't concentrate because there's a photographer shuffling camera equipment between his showcase kitchen and grand living room
After a short and sharp negotiation, the cameraman agrees to wait in Hargreaves' luxurious – but rather cold – garden until we've finished speaking
'Of course,' chuckles Hargreaves in his jovial, Lancastrian accent, 'I'm successful enough to tell him to p*** off
' Big business: Peter Hargreaves' enormous wealth enabled him to become one of the biggest financiers behind the 2016 Brexit campaignFortunately for Hargreaves, he has enough charm to not cause any offence – and he does, at least, offer him a cup of coffee
At first appearance, Hargreaves seems an unlikely billionaire. The father of two adult children, Hargreaves and his wife Rose live in a pleasant but ordinary village near Bristol
His front drive has no flashy cars to speak of. His doorbell is 'on the blink', leaving visitors to contend with a knocker that is loosely connected to his door frame
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Cheers! Pubs will add fizz to your portfolio: Glass is half. Share this article Share 260 shares HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP What you need to know each week: Listen to the This is Money podcast As I arrive on a chilly January morning, he is wearing a frayed, old polo shirt – which, at the insistence of the cameraman, is swapped for a business shirt, albeit creased and half-unbuttoned, for his photoshoot
Make no mistake, though – Hargreaves, the son of a Clitheroe baker, has amassed a fortune of around £3billion, having set up investment company Hargreaves Lansdown with his friend Stephen Lansdown in 1981 and seen it grow into a FTSE 100 giant
His enormous wealth enabled Hargreaves to become one of the biggest financiers behind the 2016 Brexit campaign
Hargreaves donated £3.2million of his fortune to Leave.EU, a Brexit campaign group, in the run-up to the 2016 referendum
At odds with the business establishment, he wants the UK to leave the EU without a deal – something many bosses have said would lead to disaster
I just don't get what MPs don't understand about 17.4 million people voting to leave But they shouldn't worry about this, according to Hargreaves
He and other Brexit financiers have made headlines this month by sharing their concerns that the UK will not end up leaving the EU at all
His personal belief is that Remainers will force a second referendum.'A lot of the influential Remainers want it to fail completely, they don't want Brexit to happen
And I think by all the shenanigans that are going on, they're hoping first of all that we put back the date
'Then they're going to go for another referendum, which I think is terrible. I don't understand what MPs don't understand about 17
4 million people voting to go.'The EU vote represented Hargreaves' first – and possibly last – foray into political funding
Although he likes his local MP, Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg – 'a very, very bright boy' who he often meets for lunch – he has in the main been 'disillusioned with politics' since Margaret Thatcher left Downing Street in 1990
'I think that the average man in the street is more in touch, more aware and smarter than the average politician,' he fumes
'It makes me cross that intellectuals – most of whom have never done a worthwhile thing in their life – say the people that voted [for Brexit] didn't know what they were doing
'They're saying I didn't know what I was doing! So name me an intellectual that's done something of more value than me
Worried: Hargreaves and other Brexit financiers have made headlines this month by sharing their concerns that the UK will not end up leaving the EU at all'Does someone like me, that's built up an enormous business, know less than a politician or an intellectual? If somebody thinks so, well, come and tell me
'When he and Stephen Lansdown set up Hargreaves Lansdown from a spare room in his Bristol home, the business initially sent out information about investment funds and tax to retail investors by post
It took off 20 years later in the early 2000s when, Hargreaves explains, he recognised how important the internet could be for its model
He flags the launch of a mobile phone application as being particularly significant
'Hargreaves Lansdown is an internet business,' says the man who was chief executive until 2010 and remains the firm's largest shareholder with a 32 per cent stake
Hargreaves therefore believes that he should be considered a rare example of a British 'tech billionaire'
Today, Hargreaves Lansdown is an online 'investment supermarket' that hosts £86 billion of funds for more than one million clients
The FTSE 100 company has 1,300 employees and a market value of nearly £9 billion
Despite his entrepreneurial success, Hargreaves does not command the same allure as some of the world's other 'tech billionaires', like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk of Tesla
But, as of last year, he has something new in common with the pair: space.Both Bezos and Musk manage space exploration ventures alongside their day jobs
And Hargreaves joined their ranks last year when he invested £24 million in Cornwall's Goonhilly Earth Station, which provides spacecraft tracking and monitoring services to satellite companies
'Well!' he exclaims, beaming like a child showing off their latest toy. 'Space – or, rather, satellites: it is 'uge
'He goes on to speak excitedly about how satellites will be used to run self-driving cars in the future
How did he become involved? 'The problem for Goonhilly was that anybody who was thinking of dealing with them would look at the balance sheet and say, "Well, is this company going to continue to be around?" Of course, they wanted a billionaire, didn't they? The whole space industry is billionaires
'There could be a major plot twist on the horizon for Hargreaves and Goonhilly, though
Shortly before he signed his investment, the station agreed an £8.4 million contract with the European Space Agency to help build the world's first commercial, deep-space communications station
Could this be under threat from Brexit?Hargreaves laughs off the suggestion: 'I don't think so – because nobody else can do it!'Away from space and politics, Hargreaves is still involved in the investment business, having launched a new company – Blue Whale – in 2017
He invested £25 million in the global equity fund, whose analysts conduct deep research into firms before judging whether their shares are undervalued
It currently has funds under management of £84 million and outperformed the FTSE 100 index by 17 per cent last year
No exit? Britain's Prime Minister, Theresa May, makes a statement after Parliament rejected her Brexit deal, earlier this monthHargreaves' vision is for Blue Whale to be a vehicle to hold his family's vast wealth in the long term
Nearly all of his money is in paper form – with the majority held in Hargreaves Lansdown shares
He admits to a couple of extravagances. Namely his large and well-kept grounds – currently inhabited by a couple of hard-working gardeners and a loitering photographer – and his Embraer Legacy 500 jet, which has a range of 3,000 miles and seats eight people
But in the grand scheme of the Hargreaves family wealth, it's a drop in the ocean
'I don't spend a lot of money at all. Not really,' he says, beckoning in the cameraman, noting that he's unlikely to be 'very warm'
'I mean, when we go anywhere, we stay in the best hotels. We go to the best restaurants
We all have nice clothes and shoes and things. But we don't really spend vast amounts of money
'But there could be one more major financial outlay on the horizon if, as Hargreaves predicts, there is a second EU referendum
His passionate attack on pro-Remain intellectuals and politicians strongly suggests he might be willing to fund another Brexit campaign – even if his first £3
2 million goes to waste. PETER HARGREAVES, 72: PICCALILLI-LOVING, PRIVATE JET OWNER Hargreaves, who co-founded popular investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, owns a private jetHeights of success: Peter Hargreaves and his fellow founder at Hargreaves Lansdown Stephen Lansdown both own private planes
Hargreaves has an Embraer Legacy 500 jet, pictured.Family: Wife Rose and two adult children
Son Robert works for his investment firm Blue Whale and daughter Louisa has just had her first child
Hobbies: 'I love cooking. I make my own preserves. I make a very, very mean piccalilli
With having this fabulous garden, I do love cooking.'Favourite film: The Shawshank Redemption
Music: Roy Orbison. 'I like music of the early 1960s.'Books: The Power Of One by Bryce Courtenay and Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett
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