De-banking Nigel Farage Was Motivated by Politics, Not Commerce: Bank Apologises

Documents further vindicate Nigel Farage’s claims he was de-banked by Coutts for political, not financial reasons.

Responding to a third legal request to release information about the bank’s handling of Farage’s personal data, Head of Asset Management, and current interim CEO, Mohammad Kamal Syed apologised.

Admitting gross professional misconduct, Syed wrote in a letter published by GBNews, “Our processes have uncovered some inappropriate comments, and poor behaviours for which I would like to apologise.

“We are following up on these as appropriate, and are committed to learning the lessons from this so that in future we can live up to the high expectations our clients rightly” expect, he added.

Former CEO, Alison Rose stepped down in late July following the scandal, with the then Coutts CEO admitting she betrayed client confidentiality.

Rose shared Farage’s personal financial information with the BBC, outing herself as the source of a [fake news] article alleging Farage wasn’t de-banked, his account was deactivated.

The viral story fed online trolls, who used the article to defame Farage as a liar and a Russian puppet (see more here).

The BBC has since apologised.

Details from the 600-page Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) show NatWest Group employees engaging in juvenile, Twitter-esk attacks on the former Brexit leader.

Adding to the intrigue, internal texts unravel a story of blatant vilification.

“No, it’s just you are an awful human being, lol,” one person wrote in response to Farage labelling the bank’s decision political.

Another text read, “What’s the crackpot saying now?”

Celebrating a (now debunked) BBC defence of the bank’s choice to close his accounts, an employee responded with five “Crying with laughter” emojis.

This prompted an employee to write, “Mr. Nobody now he’s completed Brexit.”

If you’ve ever badly misjudged a decision at work this year, bear in mind this Coutts employee who thanked Farage for the ‘publicity’ and said he was a ‘nobody’ after Brexit pic.twitter.com/H3VzOlj2I1

— Calgie (@christiancalgie) October 23, 2023

According to the GBNews exclusive, a bank employee went as far to say, “I’d throw a milkshake at him if I was approached to open an account for him [sic].”

Replying to the shonky BBC’s swift dismissal of de-banking, someone wrote, “Hope that knocked him down a peg or 2 [sic].”

The Coutt’s employee pile-on continued with, ‘no one will bank him now,’ with yet another staffer gloating, “Have we single handedly drive NF out of the country?![sic]”

One employee said, “I’d have paid” to be the one to de-bank him.

‘This was there culture that Dame Alison rose took NatWest to and I hope the board deal with her properly!’

Nigel Farage speaks about document’s revealing NatWest’s discussion and plans to ‘drive him out of the country’ regarding the debanking scandal. pic.twitter.com/D3qIHEzL76

— GB News (@GBNEWS) October 23, 2023

Disparaging Farage for his Pro-U.K conservative activism, the campaign to de-bank him included accusations Farage was aligned with terrorism (PEP), “racist, ant-women, and antisemitic.”

NatWest even referenced anti-terrorism legislation in efforts to shut down my bank accounts.

Remember when they said it was for “commercial reasons” only?

The @NatWestGroup are totally dishonest. pic.twitter.com/QVXA3yVPHp

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) October 24, 2023

GBNews added that the former Ukip leader was also accused of being a “shameless grifter.”

In other words, Farage was cancelled because Woke, left-wing, staffers felt unsafe about his widely held, common sense viewpoints.

The DSAR revelations are a smoking gun.

Coutts’s admission of fault vindicates Farage’s claims he was unfairly targeted because his political views didn’t “align with the banks values.”

Doubling down on their apology the bank issued a public statement, saying, “We’ve apologised sincerely. The deeply inappropriate comments and poor behaviours are inconsistent with the Bank’s standards of service.”

Banking now comes with a trigger warning:

Comply with the trending pet cause of left-wing lawfare activists, or they’ll lobby your bank into closing every account.

Worse, “sorry, not sorry” executives – who are supposed to be impartial – appear happy to engage in career suicide, just to intimidate political opponents.

Following Farage’s vindication in the Coutts de-banking saga, imagine the size of any pending lawsuit.

Now imagine just how big that lawsuit could become, given the gross professional misconduct by staffers who vilified him.

Farage is well within his rights to pursue the matter, and perhaps he should.

Apologies are welcome, righting the precedent in court even more so.

CEO’s who would de-bank and doxx legitimate law-abiding clients, need to be discouraged from doing so.  

As I said in July: Farage Being De-Banked Will Backfire.