Even Nigel Farage has the right to bank

The most delinquent bank in history, Royal Bank of Scotland (now called NatWest/Coutts) is in no position to make moral judgements on anyone

When the former Brexit Party leader, Nigel Farage, first claimed earlier this month that he had been “debanked” by Coutts bank, a subsidiary of Nat West, I have to say I was sceptical. It is not unknown for Mr Farage to exaggerate “woke” persecution. Surely, I thought, a bank wouldn’t cancel someone just for being a Brexiteer or for opposing illegal immigration.

Indeed, the BBC’s business editor, Simon Jack, briefed by sources close to the bank, reported that Farage’s bank accounts had been closed, not because of his political beliefs, but because he didn’t have sufficient funds. I was inclined to believe that. I was wrong, and I admit it. So far as I know Jack hasn’t. It has emerged that Jack had had dinner with the boss of NatWest, Alison Rose, at a charity do the night before his report. The Nat West/Coutts’s official line is that it cannot comment on Farage’s claims because of “commercial confidentiality”. This is clearly nonsense.

We now know from internal documents (see below) that Coutts had judged Farage to be unacceptable because of his beliefs. It said it wanted to avoid reputational damage by being associate with him. This is pretty rich for a bank with the dismal reputation of Royal Bank of Scotland, which is what Nat West was called until 2020. I am appalled at the number of people on the left who naively side with the banksters in this story forgetting RBS’s role in the financial crash.

And yes, I know, you probably don’t much like Nigel Farage - nor do I. But freedom of speech is valueless unless it is extended to people with whom you disagree, and the same goes for the right to have a bank account. Anyway, the bizarre grounds on which Coutts cancelled Farage banking services, I now discover, could equally apply to me - at least in the eyes of the faceless bureaucrats who make these decisions - and to many other people. Even to Scottish nationalists. As I shall explain…