Brexit leader Nigel Farage has hailed a long-awaited victory over the “Russia hoax” after the release of the Durham report which exonerated President Donald Trump and a key Brexit backer receiving a financial settlement from a Guardian journalist in a libel case.

Mr Farage said that the “global elites” were so stunned by the populist revolt in 2016, which saw the British people vote to leave the European Union and the subsequent election of President Donald Trump in the United States, that they were desperate to “means a way of delegitimizing both results and guess what it was? It was Russia.”

This week, it was revealed by the long-delayed report from special counsel John Durham that top members of the Obama administration, including Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Commey and even President Obama himself were briefed by then-CIA Director John Brennan that the Hillary Clinton campaign had plans to falsely connect Donald Trump to the Kremlin in order to distract from her own email scandal.

Across the pond in Britain, it was revealed last week — to almost no press attention — that Brexit-backing businessman Arron Banks had finally received £35,000 in damages from Guardian journalist Carole Cadwalladr following a lengthy libel case over claims that she had made, asserting during a Ted Talk that Banks had a secret relationship with the Russian government and had received foreign funding.

Mr Banks, who may also still be awarded his considerable legal fees from Cadwalladr in a further pending ruling, went say that he received “an apology, an undertaking not to tell fibs again, and the infamous TED talk edited out,” adding: “Total vindication & a lesson to all journalists to only publish the facts!”

The payment from Cadwalladr comes on top of the Electoral Commission and National Crime Agency both admitting that there was no evidence of criminal activity by Banks or the Brexit campaign.

Despite the new ruling, there has been almost no acknowledgement of the payment by the press in Britain, which were complicit in spreading the “hoax” that the Brexit campaign was tied to Russia, according to Mr Farage.

In comments made to Breitbart London, former Leave.EU communications director and close confidant of Banks, Andy Wigmore said that the reason for the lack of press coverage for the financial settlement in the British legacy press was because it didn’t “fit their narrative”.

Wigmore said that the persistent accusations of supposed collusion in the media had a “destabilising effect on Brexit, being able to accuse Brexiteers of being Russian funded and Putin’s puppets, all of those narratives they used were hugely damaging.”

“It gave the Remain camp, the people that didn’t want Brexit, something to hang their hat on and the mainstream media were very much a part of that and you will not hear anything about the settlement, they will not do anything because it doesn’t fit that narrative.”

There has also been little acknowledgement from the legacy media in the United States for its role in pushing the Clinton-concocted hoax on the public, with a notable exception being CNN’s Jake Tapper, who admitted that the report from Special Counsel John Durham is “devastating to the FBI and, to a degree, it does exonerate Donald Trump.”

“In America, there’s very little coverage of this Durham report after four years and in this country the same newspapers and TV channels that ran front pages on Aaron Banks and myself, and our links with Russia, I haven’t seen a single word, not one word about Banks winning the case, not one word of apology, and it kind of shows you what we’re up against in this great battle,” Mr Farage said.

The Brexiteer noted that his name was also dragged through the mud during the Russia hoax, with even Hillary Clinton’s camp claiming — without evidence — that Mr Farage was funded by the Russians.

“We’re up against people who launched the most disgraceful attempt in democratic history to overturn results in both Britain and America. We’ve been cleared, we’ve been vindicated on both sides of the pond, but I’m afraid the battle against these dreadful people is going to go on for years and years,” the Brexit leader predicted.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka