Nigel Farage has yet again hammered the British private bank Coutts for closing his account because of his political views. The former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), one of the leading campaigners for Brexit, and currently a host on the broadcaster GB News, reiterated his claims on BBC Newsnight on Wednesday, July 19.
“Read the report, read the conclusions. They say Russia is a risk for them. They say my views do not align with the bank’s,” said Farage, citing a 40-page report he obtained on Tuesday from Coutts that reviewed his suitability as a client. “Brexit is mentioned 86 times, Russia 144 & PEP 10. Support for Trump + views on immigration, net zero & the vaccine are listed as reasons to exit me,” Farage wrote on his Twitter page.
“The most extraordinary comments of all are the areas of the report talking about me ‘not aligning with [Coutts’s] views’ and suggesting I must be barred because I do not support the diversity, policies and ‘purpose’ of Coutts, as though Britain is a political regime and I am a dissident,” Farage wrote in The Telegraph.
Farage’s case has caused a huge uproar in the UK and has stirred up a debate on banks punishing their clients for their political views, essentially stifling free speech. The former politician initially broke the story about his banking troubles in June, stating he had been with the same banking groups since 1980, but the bank told him over the phone that his accounts were being closed. After being told it was a “commercial decision” Farage states that he tried to find another bank but was rejected by at least seven different banks for business and personal accounts. Farage believes leading the Brexit movement and his support for the previous U.S. President Donald Trump may have had something to do with the bank’s actions. The bank’s fears of his alleged ties with Russia may have been invoked by a Labour politician’s accusations that Farage had received money from the Russian government.
Several Conservative Party politicians have publicly criticised Coutts for its actions. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it “wouldn’t be right” for financial services to be denied to those expressing lawful free speech and said the government would be “toughening the rules around account closures” following a consultation.
However, in a statement on Thursday, July 20, a Coutts spokesperson stressed: “it is not Coutts’ policy to close customer accounts solely on the basis of legally held political and personal views.” The BBC had previously reported that Farage had fallen below the financial threshold needed for an account. Still, Farage claims a report by the bank stated very clearly that he had met the bank’s commercial criteria. The BBC’s revelations are to be questioned, however, claims The Spectator, seeing as they were made just a day after BBC business editor Simon Jack had dinner with Dame Alison Rose, the boss of Natwest, which owns Coutts.
In a YouGov survey published on Wednesday, July 19, 62% of those surveyed made it clear that banks should not be allowed to remove customers who have personal or political beliefs that don’t align with the bank’s values.
