Nigel Farage left raging after ‘farcical’ Dame Alison Rose apology over debanking scandal

The Information Commissioner’s Office said that it had not investigated Rose’s actions, so was wrong to say that she had breached General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Rose stepped down from her role as chief executive of one of the UK’s biggest banks after admitting that she had discussed Farage’s relationship with Coutts – a NatWest subsidiary – with a BBC journalist.

WATCH: Nigel Farage after Dame Alison Rose quit

Farage expressed outrage at the new statement from the ICO, stating that its original judgment was "clear as daylight".

He was said to be "baffled" by the apology and his lawyers have now demanded further clarity over the matter.

A little under two weeks ago, the ICO said that it had reviewed a complaint about how NatWest handled Farage.

It said at the time it found that “an individual employed by NatWest shared information when they should not have done, and that by doing so they infringed the complainant’s data protection rights”.

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It added: “In view of the fact the individual in question resigned her post and the bank has commissioned its own investigation, we do not intend to take any further regulatory action at this time.”

The ICO said in a statement: "Our comments gave the impression that we had investigated the actions of Alison Rose, the former CEO of NatWest Group. This was incorrect.

"We confirm that we did not investigate Ms Rose’s actions, given that NatWest was the data controller under investigation.

"We accept that it would have been appropriate in the specific circumstances for us to have given Ms Rose an opportunity to comment on any findings in relation to her role and regret not doing so.

"Finally, we apologise to Ms Rose for suggesting that we had made a finding that she breached the UK GDPR in respect of Mr Farage when we had not investigated her.

"Our investigation did not find that Ms Rose breached data protection law and we regret that our statement gave the impression that she did."

Rose said: “The recent publication of the outcome of a complaint from Nigel Farage by the ICO, wrongly stated that I had broken data protection rules.

“On top of that, I had not even been aware of the existence of the investigation, nor been asked any questions.

“The ICO has now acknowledged that they did not find that I breached data protection law. I welcome the clarification and accept the ICO’s apology.”