Nigel Farage has mocked former NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose while reflecting on his “cracking” 2023.
The GB News presenter was at the centre of a debanking row after Coutts closed his account in June 2023.
After admitting to “serious failings” in its treatment of the former Brexit Party leader, the NatWest boss stepped down in July.
The BBC reported that Farage’s account was being closed because he no longer met the wealth threshold for Coutts, citing a close source.
Farage mocked Dame Alison Rose
GB NEWS
It later emerged that Rose herself was the source, prompting her to apologise for a “serious error of judgment”.
Reflecting on the incident, Farage referenced his I’m a Celeb stint as he spoke to a live audience in Birmingham on GB News.
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“The middle of the year was dominated by the debanking scandal”, he said.
“There I was, for 43 years a loyal customer off the NatWest Group, banking with Coutts.
“And for no reason I could find at all, I was told my account would be closed. I can’t tell you how terrifying it is to think you’re going to be debanked.
“10 other banks refused to do my business, it just goes to show how the woke culture has taken over our institutions.
Alison Rose resigned from her role in JulyPA“They got rid of me because they don’t like the views I stood for, so I fought them and we managed to get rid of the CEO of Coutts and the CEO of NatWest.
“Dame Alison West, who said I didn’t have enough money to bank with Coutts.
“If she had known I was going in the jungle, she might have changed her mind!”
It comes as an independent NatWest report found there was “no evidence of discrimination” in the decision to debunk Farage.
The GB News star has since branded the report “baloney”.
Coutts closed about 900 accounts over a two-year period, including those of politicians known as politically exposed persons (PEPs), and not including inactive accounts or customers initiating the closure.
NatWest, which owns Coutts, said lawyers at Travers Smith analysed 84 account closures in the two years to July 28, about a 10% sample of all the relevant cases in that time.
The report found that decision-making was appropriate and consistent with industry standards, and that there was no evidence of discrimination due to political views or affiliations, or any other protected characteristic.
However, Coutts said it recognises there are “lessons to be learned” from the way it communicates with customers.
